Exploration of Meteoritic Peptides and their Relevance for the Origin of Life

Organization National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Reference Code 0211-NPP-NOV26-GSFC-Astrobio How to Apply All applications must be submitted in Zintellect. Please visit the NASA Postdoctoral Program website for application instructions and requirements: How to Apply | NASA Postdoctoral Program (orau.org). A complete application includes: Research proposal Three letters of recommendation Official doctoral transcript documents Application Deadline 11/1/2026 6:00:59 PM Eastern Time Zone Description The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. The exogenous delivery of prebiotic organic compounds to Earth likely played a role in the chemical evolution that gave rise to the origin of life. Meteorite studies have demonstrated that some of the chemical building blocks of life may have been delivered to the primordial Earth by small solar system bodies. While simple organic monomers, such as amino acids, have been heavily studied in the meteorite literature, the polymerization products of these compounds, namely peptides, have been understudied. Exploring the peptide content of meteorites will better constrain the extent to which small solar system bodies could have delivered larger, more complex biomolecules to the early Earth. Such insights will shed new light on the possibility that meteorites may have expanded the prebiotic chemical inventory en route to the formation of primitive proteins. This NPP opportunity focuses on developing new, sensitive analytical tools to detect and quantify a wide array of abiotic peptides, which will then be used to examine the peptide chemical space in a suite of meteorites. The implications of this research will be directly relevant to the soluble organic analyses of samples returned by space flight missions such as OSIRIS‑REx, Mars Sample Return, JAXA Hayabusa2, and MMX missions. Applicant Qualifications Astrobiology or a related field (origin of life, prebiotic chemistry, etc.) Analytical chemistry Chromatography and mass spectrometry Contamination control of precious samples Location Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland Field of Science Astrobiology Advisors Eric Parker View email address on click.appcast.io View phone number on click.appcast.io Eligibility Eligibility is currently open to: U.S. Citizens; U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR); Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J‑1 visa status; and, Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with a valid EAD card and I‑485 or I‑589 forms in pending status. Eligibility Requirements Degree: Doctoral Degree. Contact Questions about this opportunity? Please email View email address on click.appcast.io . Point of Contact: Mikeala #J-18808-Ljbffr ORAU