THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO BUILD A FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE MOLECULAR MECHANISMS THAT DRIVE THE FORMATION AND STABILITY OF PRIMITIVE PROTOCELL MEMBRANES. WE WILL SPECIFICALLY FOCUS ON UNCOVERING HOW INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FATTY ACIDS AND MINERAL SURFACES CAN DRIVE MEMBRANE FORMATION AND HOW MEMBRANE INTERACTIONS WITH PREBIOTIC AMINO ACIDS AND IONS IMPACT MEMBRANE STABILITY. THIS WILL BE ACHIEVED BY COMBINING MOLECULAR SIMULATIONS AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS-BASED THEORIES. THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK WILL PROVIDE IMPORTANT MOLECULAR-SCALE INSIGHTS INTO HOW COMPARTMENTALIZATION CAN ORIGINATE IN EARLY EARTH ENVIRONMENTS. QUANTIFYING LIPID-MINERAL INTERACTIONS AND DETERMINING WHICH INTERACTIONS FAVOR MEMBRANE FORMATION WILL HELP.NARROW DOWN THE VAST INVENTORY OF MINERAL SURFACES THAT MAY BE RELEVANT TO THE ORIGINS OF LIFE. SIMILAR INSIGHTS WILL BE PROVIDED BY INVESTIGATING THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PREBIOTIC AMINO ACIDS AND PROTOCELL MEMBRANES. THE PROPOSAL WILL EXPAND MY RESEARCH DIRECTIONS TO MEMBRANES AND THEIR INTERFACES WHILE LEVERAGING MY EXPERIENCE IN MODELING MINERAL SURFACES AND THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS TO CREATE ATOMIC-SCALE INSIGHTS INTO PREBIOTIC COMPARTMENTALIZATION PROCESSES.

Rutgers, The State University

Investigators