Abstract Space biotechnology is a nascent field aimed at applying tools of modern biology to
advance our goals in space exploration. These advances rely on our ability to exploit in situ
high throughput techniques for amplification and sequencing DNA, and measuring levels of
RNA transcripts, proteins and metabolites in a cell. These techniques, collectively known as
“omics” techniques have already revolutionized terrestrial biology. A number of on-going
efforts are aimed at developing instruments to carry out “omics” research in space, in …

Over the last two decades high throughput methods have revolutionized the field of biology.
The key components of this new approach are genomics, proteomics and metabolomics,
collectively known as" omics". They are aimed at studying content and activity of the full
complement of genes, proteins and metabolites, respectively, in an organism or a
consortium of organisms. Even though omics approaches are relatively new, they are
already widely used and have yielded many important insights to biology and medicine. In …