We are interested in exploring the many diverse aspects of the phenomenon of the origin of life. Be it through the processes involved in the primordial origin of life or through the synthesis of artificial protocells, we are interested in getting closer to the biochemical moment of the emergence of life.
I have developed the first known system demonstrating RNA formation catalyzed by simple peptides in prebiotic environments. In this work, I showed how a dipeptide can assist in polymerization of imidazole-activated nucleotides in a prebiotic, water/ice eutectic environment at -18ºC. This discovery bridges the peptide-world approach which postulates that peptides were easily obtainable under prebiotic conditions and therefore played a key role in early organocatalysis and the RNA-world hypothesis which postulates that the earliest life forms had an RNA-based metabolism.
In our group we are now continuing this line of research by synthesizing and exploring the catalytic properties of various short peptide sequences.
We are also actively developing theoretical frameworks for future work in this field. I have already proposed a synthesis of various features of the compartmentalization approach to the origin of life and put forth a new and coherent hypothesis for the emergence of the first cells through supramolecular selection and autopoiesis. This framework presents an alternative to the common RNA-world hypothesis and all other replicator-based scenarios. We are currently focusing on designing experiments demonstrating key aspects of this hypothesis.
wieczorek lab 