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SUMMARY:On the Origins of Life: A Chemist’s perspective - Matthew Powner
  (UCL\, Chemistry)
DTSTART:20230221T183000Z
DTEND:20230221T193000Z
UID:TALK195523@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Max Wong
DESCRIPTION:Living organisms are highly complex chemical systems that expl
 oit a small constellation of universally conserved metabolites. The chemic
 al unity of these metabolites provides compelling evidence that a simple s
 et of predisposed reactions predicated the appearance of life on Earth. Co
 nversely\, traditional prebiotic chemistry has produced highly complex mix
 tures that bear little resemblance to the core metabolites of life. The co
 mplexity of prebiotic chemistry until recently had suggested that elucidat
 ing life’s origins was an insurmountable task\, but prebiotic systems ch
 emistry is now providing unprecedented scope to explore the origins of lif
 e and an exciting new perspective on a 4 billion-year-old problem. At the 
 heart of this new\nsystems approach is an understanding that individual cl
 asses of metabolites cannot be considered in isolation if the chemical ori
 gin of life on Earth is to be successfully elucidated. In this talk severa
 l recent advances that suggest that nucleotides and proteinogenic peptides
  are predisposed chemical structures that can be facilely synthesised in w
 ater will be presented.\n
LOCATION:The Winstanley Lecture Hall\, Trinity College\, Cambridge
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