We study the science of survival
How life “finds a way…..“
…..in the most extreme environments known to humans
The Two Frontiers Project (2FP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research organization dedicated to advancing human and environmental health by expedition-based exploration of microbial diversity in and between humanity’s greatest frontiers: the oceans and space.
We leverage the diversity of life in extreme environments to address major societal challenges, including climate change, coral reef bleaching, and sustainable agriculture. Learn more about our Core Values, and why we do what we do, by clicking below.
We currently have three primary research initiatives.
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With expeditions spanning three continents, from marine volcanic seeps to carbon dioxide springs in the Rocky Mountains, we are discovering carbon-capturing organisms that can efficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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As we currently undergo another worldwide mass bleaching event, we need more tools to protect our reefs. In our Coral Initiative, we do so by sequencing, culturing, and deploying microbial communities to enhance coral restoration methods and reef resilience to disease and heat-stress.
At 2FP, we believe reducing these costs – fiscal, time, and otherwise – is at the heart of innovation. It’s why we are dedicated to open-sourcing our low-cost methods for sample collection, reducing the efforts required for DNA sequencing, training citizen scientists to do work normally reserved for academic labs, and, overall, figuring out how to make microbial biotechnology scalable and practical.
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Our most recent initiative, with an upcoming expedition to the Mojave Desert in fall 2024, is dedicated to sustainable agriculture. Funded by NASA, we are seeking microbes that help plants grow in stressful, desertified environments on and off this planet, with the aim of eventually growing crops in lunar soil.
Each initiative involves exploring and sampling some of the most extreme environments of the world.
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Citizen Science
Every human should have the chance to contribute to the fight against climate change. As part of our Carbon Initiative, we are piloting a citizen science program with another 501(c)(3) partner, CitSci, to launch a national sampling campaign within the US. The initial campaign will enable anyone to learn about and collect climate-relevant microbial samples from “the extremophiles in their homes.”
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The 2FP Living Database
Each of our core research initiatives involves characterizing the microbial life in diverse ecosystems using standardized, low-cost approaches. We store every sample we take in a “living database,” which contains both living organisms and paired DNA sequencing data. We are dedicated to Open Science, enabling this resource to be available to the entire research community.
We're still building our LDB web portal -- if you want to learn more or request data, reach out in our contact section. Otherwise, you can click the link below to look at some of our other open source projects.
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Educational programs
We are dedicated to building global research capacity. The 2FP has low-cost, modular educational programs designed for anyone from the general public, undergraduate and high school students, other scientists, and even government officials. Using our standardized sampling kits, we can train anyone -- from high school students to government officials -- to use our methods.
