Projects > Project H.A.M.S.S.

After a long search for different ways to pursue both of our obsession in one fell swoop, we finally hit on an idea. 

A little background: We are entering the genomic age backed by cheap, plentiful computing power and fourth generation gene sequencing machines that are beginning to utilize events at quantum scale to sort through massive amount of genomic data. One of the newest technique enabled by these advances is something called metagenomic sequencing and analysis, which is a fancy term for techniques to analyze for presence of multiple organisms within a given sample, all at once. You could literally just scoop out a handful of earth and analyze it for trace DNA and reconstruct it with reference sequences, scanning for genomic presence of organisms both known and unknown. 

What if we could apply that technique to the samples from the high skies? What kind of things live above our heads, carried by currents that span the entire globe? What could we see if we took in samples of air from the 30km altitude stratosphere, three times the maximum attainable altitude of a Boeing 747? 

Life have proven itself to be extremely resilient, much more so than most people realize. Take Deinococcus Radiodurans for example. Those cells are capable of surviving not in high altitudes, but even in outer space. What if we had an entire layer of ecosystem carried on wind currents between the outer space and surface of the planet Earth? 

Now we have the capacity to answer that question ourselves. 

Enter the HAMSS probe, High Altitude Microbiome Sampling Station. 

Our plan is to launch a balloon probe with a self-contained, sterile sampling station to about 30~32km altitude. It will release its intake mechanism at the right altitude and take in air samples, seal itself back up to prevent contamination by ground-born organisms, and then drop back down to the surface. After retrieval we will prep the samples and send it off for sequencing and analysis with Dr.Chris Mason at Cornell Medical College, who graciously offered his sequencing facility for our use. 

Everything is in place. Biology laboratory capable of handling sensitive materials, latest generation sequencing laboratory, access to computing cluster and all the databases, and design schemetics... Except for the money to actually build and test the probe. 

We want to make this launch count. We want to do something so well made and meticulously executed that it can be used to gather data for research papers. And we want it to be so easy that any interested high school student can do it, from design and launch of the probe to actual genomic data analysis backend. And in order to do that, we need your help. 

Please keep in touch with the genspace twitter account at http://twitter.com/genspacenyc , subscribe to our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/genspace-announce , join the conversation on our facebook group! One person to get in touch with us using any of the said services might be getting a little surprise from our friends at Genspace :)  

Soon we will be launching a fundraising campaign for making this plan a reality, the first Brooklyn based near space program and genomic sequencing project. And when that time comes, tell all your friends, family, and neighbors. You can help launch a full scale near space exploration and genomic analysis project for the price of a cup of coffee! 

HAMSS is a joint project between Dr. Oliver Medvedik and Sung won Lim at Genspace. 

If you have any questions or suggestions about the project, please feel free to email sung@genspace.org