A research group led by Associate Professor Saegusa Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences has revealed the presence of "sugars" that are the building blocks of life in sand brought back from the planet BennuItabashi Campus

On Monday, December 1, 2025, a research group led by Daisuke Saegusa, Associate Professor Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Teikyo University, detected six types of sugars, including ribose, a component of RNA, and glucose, the main energy source for life metabolism, in asteroid sand brought back from the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu. This result is conclusive evidence that the sugars that make up life exist outside of Earth and have been raining down on Earth. It is also the first evidence of the existence of glucose in space, revealing that there are more molecules supporting life activities in space than previously thought.
This research was carried out using the gas chromatograph in the central equipment room Itabashi Campus of our university. Triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (GC-MS/MS) was carried out using.
The results of this research were published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, which was released at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, Japan time.

Press release here
For more information about Associate Professor Saegusa, please click here.

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