Seeking Job

**David Warmflash, MD**

Mail Code SN2, Building 31, NASA JSC

Houston, TX, 77058

phone (281) 483-5134

fax (281) 483-1573

<dwarmfla@ems.jsc.nasa.gov>

Having recently completed my tenure as a member of the NASA Astrobiology
Institute's first cohort of astrobiology post-doctoral fellows, I am
currently seeking employment. As the emerging field of astrobiology may
be on the verge of discoveries that will change our fundamental
understanding of biology as well as our understanding of humanity's
place in the Cosmos, I am eager both to reach out to the general public,
using astrobiology to help other humans to transcend the social,
political, and religious differences that lead to oppression and war,
and to continue my line of research in the area of biotechnology
approaches to detect extraterrestrial life forms and forward and back
contamination. I also wish to continue to help to build bridges between
the astrobiology community and the space medicine community, as I have
begun to do at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

As the initiator of the Planetary Society\'s space science for peace
program, I recently helped to bring together an Israeli medical student
and a Palestinian biology student for a combined astrobiology
experiment, called GOBBSS, on the ill-fated STS-107 mission of the
*Columbia*. As a first in Israeli/Palestinian cooperation on a space
mission, GOBBSS has been featured in an exposé by Lauren Gelfond in the
Jerusalem Post Magazine and the students (who have become friends) and I
have participated twice as guests on Planetary Radio with Mat Kaplan. If
it turns out that any of the GOBBSS samples survived the crash -- and we
have found out that this may indeed be the case -- then we shall
complete the experiment, discuss the results on Planetary Radio, and
seek funding for the production of a documentary film about GOBBSS.
Additionally, I have an essay on how the international cooperation in
the GOBBSS experiment relates to the emerging global peace movement,
which will appear in the upcoming May/June issue of *The Humanist*.

I have also worked with Professor George Fox of the Department of
Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston and Ken Lawrence,
Program director for Houston Public television, on the development of an
astrobiology television project which was to be called *Life Quest*. Mr.
Lawrence and I had written a treatment, using a story-telling approach
to teaching about the search for life on Mars and we had gone to Ithaca,
NY to meet with Ann Druyan of Cosmos studios to discuss funding and
production strategies. Unfortunately this had been just prior to the
events of September 11, 2001; after that the atmosphere for getting such
a project funded had been negatively affected. Nevertheless, through my
participation in *Life Quest* at the developmental level, I had learned
some of the basic issues encountered in educational television
production and I am interested in continuing to make such projects part
of my work.

I believe that communication with the public should be a major part of
my activities. In addition to what I have mentioned above, other media
interviews in which I have participated include:

-   Astrobiology Magazine with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Vice President
    of the Planetary Society, on the topic of panspermia

-   Israel Channel Two Television, in which the late Col. Ilan Ramon
    (Israeli's first astronaut), Dr. Eran Schenker (my Co-PI in the
    GOBBSS project), and I were interviewed for a documentary film about
    the STS-107 mission. (Because of the subsequent tragic loss of Col.
    Ramon and his fellow astronauts, I did not ever find out how much,
    if any, of the interview footage that I did for them, actually made
    it into the film)

-   Fox News TV in which Tariq Adwan and I were interviewed concerning
    GOBBSS for a national audience on the day following the Columbia
    tragedy.

-   Brief radio interviews speaking about space medicine and Mars: *Kol
    Yisrael* (Israeli National Radio) in march 2001, and 740 AM, a local
    Houston station two or three years ago.

The laboratory research that I have been conducting involves the use of
antibodies to detect signs of life or contamination in environmental
samples. I have been conducting this research as part of a team
developing an instrument called Modular Assays for Solar System
Exploration (MASSE) and, ideally, I would like to be able to have access
to a laboratory as well as a job description in which I would be able to
devote some of my time to this research and some to national and
international astrobiology/science outreach activities. While,
ultimately, I am seeking long term employment, I am also very interested
in short term options, lasting from a few months to a year or two.

Curriculum vitae follows

**CURRICULUM VITAE - DAVID WARMFLASH**

**Education**

B.S. Zoology University of Massachusetts/Amherst 1989

M.D. Tel Aviv University/Sackler School of Medicine 1996

## Areas of Expertise

Detection of bio-organic compounds using immunological techniques

Scientific evaluation of antibodies for use in biosensor instruments

Assessment of biohazard risk of putative extraterrestrial microorganisms

Public Communication of Science

**Current position**

National Astrobiology Institute NRC post doctoral fellow January,
2001-January, 2003

NASA Johnson Space Center

## Past Professional Experience

Research Associate -- Astrobiology, 1998-2000

Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston

Visiting Research Associate, Ashton Graybiel Laboratory, 1996-1998

Department of Psychology, Brandeis University

**Recent Publications:**

Warmflash D, Larios-Sanz M, Willson RC, Fox GE, Allen CC, and McKay DS.
Detection of biomarkers in soil and JSC Mars-1 regolith simulant by
immunoassay. Submitted, *Astrobiology*.

Warmflash D, McKay DS, Gibson EK Jr, Fox GE, and Clemett SJ. The Viking
Biology Results and the new Biosignature Category System. To be
submitted shortly to *Icarus*.

Warmflash D, Larios-Sanz M, Jones J, Fox GE, and McKay DS. Assessing the
biohazard potential of putative Martian organisms for exploration class
human space missions. In preparation for *Aviation, Space, and
Environmental Medicine* special 2003 space medicine edition.

Larios-Sanz M, Kourentzi KE, Warmflash D, Jones J, Willson RC, Pierson
DL, and Fox GE. 16S rRNA Beacons for Bacterial Monitoring in Craft and
Habitat Modules in Human Space Missions. In preparation for *Aviation,
Space, and Environmental Medicine* special 2003 space medicine edition.

Warmflash, D. Pioneers in Space, Pioneers of Peace? In print for *The
Humanist*, May/June, 2003.

Clemett SJ, Warmflash D, Gibson EK Jr, Fox GE, Longazo T, and McKay DS.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Nakhla Meteorite and the search
for organic matter on Mars. In preparation.

McKay D, Steele A, Warmflash D, Maule J, and Lynch K. \"Detection of
Molecular signatures of life using immunoassay techniques\". *34th
COSPAR Scientific Assembly - The Second World Space Congress*, Houston,
October 10-19, 2002.

Warmflash D, McKay DS, Fox GE, Steele A, Maule J, Allen CC, Schweitzer
M, Pincus S, Pérez Mercader J, Parro García V, Briones Llorente C, and
Thomas-Keprta K. Development of the MASSE instrument: immunoassay
detection of organic compounds in soil and Mars regolith simulant. NASA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory In Situ Instrument Workshop Proceedings, 2002.

Warmflash, D.M., S.J. Clemett, and D.S. McKay 2001.Organic matter in SNC
meteorites: Is it time to re-evaluate the Viking biology experimental
data. *Proceedings of the 32nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference*,
Houston, TX, March 12-16.

Warmflash, David M. Why Microbes Matter. *Space Daily*, September 4,
2001. <http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zf1.html>

Special Advisor for Space Biomedicine, *Space Biology: A Teacher's
Resource*, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSB),
[http://www.spacebiology.net](http://www.spacebiology.net/), to be
released October 27, 2000.