University of Cambridge / Chemistry

The chemical origin of life is one of the greatest problems humanity has yet to understand. Deciphering this puzzle will not only shed light on the fundamentals of evolution on Earth, but also help refine our definition of life and our understanding of where else life could exist in the Universe.

Our planet hosts 1.2 million identified species, organised in cells and enclosed by lipid membranes. Membrane-regulated nutrient uptake, waste disposal and signal transduction are likely the result of an evolutionary pathway that started about 4 billion years ago. However, seemingly little progress has been made toward understanding how primitive cells could have regulated their internal homeostasis, orchestrated simultaneous biochemical processes and collectively established a communication network.

My research goal is to build communities of primitive cells capable of recapitulating modern cellular behaviours, aimed at improving our understanding of how modern cells evolved, differentiated and learnt to communicate. To achieve this, I will take advantage of a ‘systems chemistry’ approach, a powerful experimental framework that fully captures the synergistic complexity that emerges from chemical mixtures, to better understand how life emerged on our planet.

I will uncover the fundamental knowledge required to i) explore the prebiotic chemical space in search of prebiotically plausible, yet biologically relevant biochemical systems capable of conferring a diverse range of functionalities to primitive cells; ii) expand our understanding of how primitive cells might have interacted in response to environmental and chemical stimuli; iii) exploit these insights to build communities of primitive cells capable of molecular interaction and communication, on the trajectory that connects prebiotic chemistry with modern biology.

Moreover, efforts toward understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating transmembrane transport and signalling have the potential to advance our understanding of fundamental biological processes and to transform a variety of technologies, ranging from the design of targeted delivery systems to synthetic biology