{"id":567,"date":"2021-02-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/?p=567"},"modified":"2021-02-25T20:56:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T01:56:27","slug":"black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Black History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the last entry in our Black History<\/a> Month series<\/a>, we\u2019re discussing Emmett Chappelle, the biochemist hired by NASA to develop tests and methods to identify microbial life on the surface of Mars. Of course, life has never been found on the red planet, but like many other innovations originally developed for space, Chappelle\u2019s inventions have found new purpose here on Earth. One of his most notable discoveries was luciferase, the enzyme found in fireflies that glows when it reacts with the protein luciferin in the presence of ATP\u2014the currency of life. Because luciferase only reacts with luciferin when there is enough ATP to power the reaction, it will only glow in the presence of a living cell. Chappelle used this bioluminescent property of luciferase to develop a sensitive assay for detecting life that is still used today throughout a variety of scientific fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The same mechanism that makes fireflies glow could also be used to find life on Mars.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chappelle was born in 1925 in Phoenix, Arizona<\/a>, where his parents were farmers on a small cotton farm. In 1942, right after graduating high school, Chappelle was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served in Italy in the segregated 92nd<\/sup> Infantry. After the war, Chappelle returned to Arizona to attend Phoenix College, earning an associate\u2019s degree in electrical engineering. With funding from the GI Bill, he then went to the University of California Berkeley to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without any graduate training, Chappelle was hired to be a biochemistry<\/a> instructor at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also started doing his own research on iron recycling by red blood cells. His research earned him recognition in the wider community of biologists, and in 1953, he accepted an offer to do graduate work at the University of Washington. He earned his master\u2019s in biology in 1954 and immediately started working towards a Ph.D. at Stanford University. He spent four years at Stanford, but he did not end up finishing the degree. In 1958, he was offered a research position at the Research Institute for Advanced Studies in Baltimore, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emmett
Emmett Chappelle is credited with over 14 different patents\u2014many of which involve bioluminescence. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When Chappelle arrived in Baltimore in 1958, a lot of federal science funding was being dedicated to aerospace research as part of the ongoing Space Race. Chappelle\u2019s research focused on using photosynthesis in plants to provide astronauts with a sustainable source of oxygen and reduce the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. In 1963, he began working at Hazleton Laboratories under contract with NASA on developing ways to detect life on Mars. He began by working with NASA\u2019s Viking probe to develop methods for scraping and collecting soil from the red planet for later testing. Later in 1966, Chappelle went to work for NASA directly at the Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a>, where he invented sensitive biodetection assays and earned over fourteen patents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chappelle\u2019s biodetection assays<\/a> primarily relied on sensitive measurement of the cellular currency, Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)<\/a>. If you remember from last summer\u2019s post on mitochondria<\/a>, ATP is the chemical fuel that cells use to store energy. Every living cell on Earth converts glucose to ATP and uses that ATP to fuel their chemical reactions. The energy in an ATP molecule comes from the highly energetic bonds between each of its three phosphate groups. These phosphate groups are much more stable on their own, so each of those bonds contains a certain amount of potential energy. That potential energy can be released\u2014and used to power less favorable reactions\u2014by breaking the phosphate bond and converting ATP to ADP (Adenosine Di<\/strong>phosphate). While there are many commonalities between cells on Earth, testing for ATP is one of the most reliable ways to detect active, living cells because it is a fundamental resource for pretty much every cellular process. In humans, a single living cell produces roughly a billion ATP molecules per second<\/a> in order to meet all of its energetic demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fireflies
Fireflies use bioluminescence to warn off predators and attract mates.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While working for NASA, Chapelle set about developing an assay to detect the presence of ATP using an existing chemical system found in fireflies\u2014bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the chemical production of light in living systems. Many organisms across the natural world use bioluminescence for a variety of purposes\u2014for example, fireflies use their glowing butts to warn off predators and attract mates<\/a>. The bioluminescent<\/a> reaction essentially requires three main ingredients: the enzyme luciferase, the protein substrate luciferin, and ATP. In the presence of oxygen and magnesium, luciferase binds to luciferin and uses the energy from ATP to turn it into oxyluciferin, releasing photons of light as a byproduct. This process is absolutely dependent on the presence of ATP in the solution, so the number of photons released is proportionally related to the number of ATP molecules available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the luciferase reaction, Chappelle developed bioluminescent assays that could precisely count the number of bacteria cells in a sample of fluid<\/a>, test the susceptibility of bacteria<\/a> to antimicrobial agents<\/a>, detect the presence of virus molecules<\/a>, and identify cancerous tissue<\/a>. In addition to developing and holding patents for each of these assays, Chappelle also held a patent for the instrument<\/a> he used to precisely measure the amount of light emitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emmet
Emmet Chappelle used luciferase assays to quantify the amount of ATP present in a sample.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today, bioluminescence is used in a variety of research<\/a> contexts. It can be used to evaluate the metabolic activity of cells, which is indicative of their viability and abundance. Bioluminescence is also used in reporter gene assays to help researchers determine if a particular gene is active in a system they are studying. Bioluminescence can even be used in live animals to image molecular processes in real-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chappelle retired from NASA in 2001 and received an Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal<\/a> for his work and mentorship of young scientists. In 2007, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame<\/a>. In 2019, at the age of 93, he died of renal failure at his home in Baltimore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out last month\u2019s<\/a> series on the history and science<\/a> of immunity<\/a> and the development of the new Covid-19 vaccines<\/a>. Science You Can Bring Home To Mom will be back in two weeks with a brand new series! Comment on this post or email me at contact@anyonecanscience.com<\/a> to let me know what you think about this week\u2019s blog post and tell me what sorts of topics you want me to cover in the future. And subscribe below for weekly science posts sent straight to your email!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last entry in our Black History Month series, we\u2019re discussing Emmett Chappelle, the biochemist hired by NASA to develop tests and methods to identify microbial life on the surface of Mars. Of course, life has never been found on the red planet, but like many other innovations originally developed for space, Chappelle\u2019s inventions have found new purpose here on Earth. One of his most notable discoveries was luciferase, the enzyme found in fireflies that glows when it reacts with the protein luciferin in the presence of ATP\u2014the currency of life. Because luciferase only reacts with luciferin when there…<\/p>\n

Continue readingBlack History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"For the final post in our Black History Month series, we are taking a look at the career of Emmett Chappelle, the biochemist who developed bioluminescent assays meant to find life on Mars. Check it out and subscribe! #EmmettChappelle #anyonecanscience","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[201],"tags":[94,256,258,241,242,255,257,259,199],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-of-science","tag-adenosine-triphosphate-atp","tag-bioluminescence","tag-bioluminescent-assay","tag-black-history-month","tag-black-history-of-science","tag-emmett-chappelle","tag-fireflies","tag-life-on-mars","tag-science-history","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the last entry in our Black History Month series, we\u2019re discussing Emmett Chappelle, the biochemist hired by NASA to develop tests and methods to identify microbial life on the surface of Mars. 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Chappelle used this bioluminescent property of luciferase to develop a sensitive assay for detecting life that is still used today throughout a variety of scientific fields.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Black History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars","og_url":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/","og_site_name":"Science You Can Bring Home To Mom","article_published_time":"2021-02-26T17:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/anyonecanscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Golden-Bioluminescent-small.9fc86a7418e442faa952b076379e5955.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"savmiller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"savmiller","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/"},"author":{"name":"savmiller","@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2647809e5a0bc388f62d4e001f13123c"},"headline":"Black History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars","datePublished":"2021-02-26T17:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/"},"wordCount":1118,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2647809e5a0bc388f62d4e001f13123c"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anyonecanscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Golden-Bioluminescent-small.9fc86a7418e442faa952b076379e5955.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","keywords":["Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)","Bioluminescence","Bioluminescent assay","Black History Month","Black History of Science","Emmett Chappelle","Fireflies","Life on Mars","Science History"],"articleSection":["History of Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/","url":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/","name":"Black History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anyonecanscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Golden-Bioluminescent-small.9fc86a7418e442faa952b076379e5955.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","datePublished":"2021-02-26T17:00:00+00:00","description":"For the last entry in our Black History Month series, we\u2019re discussing Emmett Chappelle, the biochemist hired by NASA to develop tests and methods to identify microbial life on the surface of Mars. Of course, life has never been found on the red planet, but like many other innovations originally developed for space, Chappelle\u2019s inventions have found new purpose here on Earth. One of his most notable discoveries was luciferase, the enzyme found in fireflies that glows when it reacts with the protein luciferin in the presence of ATP\u2014the currency of life. Because luciferase only reacts with luciferin when there is enough ATP to power the reaction, it will only glow in the presence of a living cell. Chappelle used this bioluminescent property of luciferase to develop a sensitive assay for detecting life that is still used today throughout a variety of scientific fields.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anyonecanscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Golden-Bioluminescent-small.9fc86a7418e442faa952b076379e5955.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anyonecanscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Golden-Bioluminescent-small.9fc86a7418e442faa952b076379e5955.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","width":1024,"height":768},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/black-history-month-part-3-emmett-chappelle-looks-for-life-on-mars\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Black History Month: Part 3\u2014Emmett Chappelle Looks For Life On Mars"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/","name":"Science You Can Bring Home To Mom","description":"A Science Blog For All Sorts","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2647809e5a0bc388f62d4e001f13123c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2647809e5a0bc388f62d4e001f13123c","name":"savmiller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cffc1ef49649fcb3f8a97c54c5e3fe89e853fe1e2b51375f642689b3b6716bf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cffc1ef49649fcb3f8a97c54c5e3fe89e853fe1e2b51375f642689b3b6716bf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cffc1ef49649fcb3f8a97c54c5e3fe89e853fe1e2b51375f642689b3b6716bf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"savmiller"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cffc1ef49649fcb3f8a97c54c5e3fe89e853fe1e2b51375f642689b3b6716bf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g"}}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anyonecanscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Golden-Bioluminescent-small.9fc86a7418e442faa952b076379e5955.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anyonecanscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}