UW–Madison researchers are envisioning what local foods and green fuels could look like in a Jetsons-esque future. One question they’re asking: can photosynthetic organisms be grown using lunar or Martian soils?
“There are many different things that we produce using cyanobacteria [blue-green algae] on Earth, including food additives and biofuels,” says biochemistry professor Christopher Gisriel, who is leading the project. “If I took a plant right now and I put it in lunar soil, it wouldn’t grow. But some cyanobacteria can, and we’re hoping to find out how and why.”
Gisriel and undergraduate student Kyle Prock are wrapping up exploratory research on Leptolyngbya sp. JSC-1, a hearty species of cyanobacteria first collected from LaDuke Hot Springs in Montana, where the extreme temperatures and high iron content share qualities with Martian conditions.
The nutrient composition and available metabolites in regoliths (layers of loose material found at the top of a planet’s mantle) from the Moon and Mars differ from those found on Earth. Mars regolith, for example, is high in iron — too high for plant species to survive. Using regoliths designed to mimic those found on the Moon and Mars, Gisriel and Prock found that JSC-1 is unbothered by levels of iron that would be lethal to other photosynthetic organisms. JSC-1 is also able to efficiently and effectively pull small amounts of available metabolites out of the soil. This means that JSC-1 can grow well without adding fertilizers.
These early findings, Gisriel says, are an important step toward picturing how humans might survive long stints on other planets. His research group is now studying which nutrients the cyanobacteria are extracting from the regoliths, and how the cyanobacteria change in response to non-native growing conditions. For him, however, the success of this research has additional important impacts much closer to home.
“It’s our responsibility to train this next generation of scientists. Undergraduate research was so important to get me a start, and it’s my job to teach my graduate students how to be good mentors and to help teach undergraduate students how to be research scientists,” Gisriel reflects. “Kyle has been a great student in the lab. This research is helping to get the ball rolling for him so that he can get a sense of what research is all about.”
Prock plans to continue doing research in the Gisriel Lab next year. “I’ve always been interested in space, even back when I was in middle school and I would read books about space and astronomy,” says Prock, who is finishing his junior year as a biology major. “I’m looking forward to presenting at the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium conference next August about my own research and learning about what other research is happening in Wisconsin.”
This research was funded by a $10,000 Early-stage Investigator Grant from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC), awarded to Gisriel. Prock also received a $3,000 WSGC Undergraduate Scholarship for the 2026-27 academic year in recognition of his contributions to the project.
Written by Renata Solan. Photos by Paul Escalante.