Shoot for the moon and you may land among the stars, as the saying goes.
Or, in the case of 14 local college students, aim for Mars and you may land on Earth.
A team of University of Rochester students are pushing the boundaries of bioengineering research using bacteria that is more commonly known as the culprit of serious infections: e. coli.
They worked with synthetic DNA samples to turn carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastic and acetate, which can be used as a soil fertilizer.
They also built a simulator to create low-gravity conditions similar to Mars as part of their project.
“We're continuing to develop that hardware and make it more efficient and more pronounced in how it simulates the different gravity conditions,” biochemistry student Soham Bandyopadhyay said. “So that's one aspect of the project we're continuing.”
The group is also expecting to submit a manuscript to an academic journal about their findings, he said.
The team, called PHAntom, competed with college students from around the world at the international Genetically Engineered Machine Competition in Paris in October. Their work received honors, including a nomination for “Best Space Project.”
But the experience itself, working on this project and seeing others’ research in Paris, opened at least one student’s eyes to a pursuit closer to home.
Carbon dioxide makes up about 95% of Martian air. It is also one of the fastest rising greenhouse gases on Earth.
“Our project's main focus, of course, is space. That's how we, like, sell the project,” biochemistry student Owen Oxly said. “But at the end of the day, there are many more people on Earth that are negatively affected by climate change and plastic pollution.”
Compared to before the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO2 is 50 times higher today, according to the NOAA. The federal agency states that global average of atmospheric CO2 saw the largest one-year increase on record in 2023, and oceans have absorbed enough to increase their acidity by 30%.
“Each year, human activities release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than natural processes can remove, causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to increase,” the 2025 NOAA report states.
It’s a reality that missions to Mars won’t resolve, but through working on a Martian-inspired project and seeing what other collegiate teams designed in the competition, Oxly said his ambitions have evolved.
“I’m actually applying for a program next summer that works on something, not dissimilar to this project, that is working on sustainable biomanufacturing and using fuel sources that don't contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and things like that,” Oxly said.
“How can you help the most people? And the answer to that is: It's not in space, it's here on Earth,” he added.
