Fighting bacteria in space

It is designed to hunt out deadly mutated strains that are unknown on Earth.

It will be used at first to safeguard the health of orbiting astronauts.

Eventually, it could also be used on Earth to diagnose infections or to detect biological hazards.

The research is being carried out by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a Nasa-funded consortium studying health risks in space.

"We are not specifically looking for deadly mutated bacteria," said George Fox, professor of biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston, Texas.

"We are more concerned about preventing everyday infections because, if you get sick in space, you don't have a hospital around the corner for treatment. Our goal is to avoid infections with routine monitoring to keep bacteria levels low in the first place."

Radiation hazard

Astronauts spend months in the same quarters, breathing recycled air and drinking recycled water.

This makes space stations an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Furthermore, weightlessness and higher radiation levels may increase the mutation rate of bacteria.

"Because of space's unidentified effects on bacteria and the immune system, we don't know which organisms will cause problems," Dr Fox added. "However, we have developed a technique to determine an organism's approximate identity."

The device uses knowledge of the genetics of bacteria to pinpoint DNA sequences that are common to certain groups.

In theory, it should be able to detect extra-terrestrial bacteria that are similar to those found on Earth.

Current methods rely on targeting a specific organism and would not pick up related, but unknown, bugs.