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Origins of Biology

9 October 2020

Prof Nick Lane and eight colleagues in GEE, Biosciences and across UCL have been awarded a £3 million strategic Long and Large (sLoLa) grant from the BBSRC for their research on the Origins of Biology: how energy flow structures metabolism and heredity at the origin of life.

Nick Lane - July 2020

The grant will cover three PDRA positions over 5 years, and aims to synergize mathematical modelling with lab experiments using microfluidic reactors, to bridge the conceptual gap from prebiotic chemistry in hydrothermal vents to the emergence of the genetic code.  

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The team of Co-Is have all collaborated previously through CLOE (the UCL Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution) and are: Prof Andrew Pomiankowski (GEE), Dr Amandine Marechal (SMB), Prof Finn Werner (SMB), Prof Jo Santini (SMB), Prof Beppe Battaglia (Chemistry), Prof Nicolas Szita (Biochem Eng), Dr Stefanie Frank (Biochem Eng) and Prof John Ward (Biochem Eng).

The award was featured on BBSRC News as one of ‘four ground-breaking new projects set to expand the frontiers of bioscience knowledge’ funded by the BBSRC this year . Prof Lane said: "The origin of life is one of the biggest questions in all of science, yet until recently the biosciences have had surprisingly little input - an important gap. We are delighted that the BBSRC is backing this ambitious project to understand the fundamental driving forces that gave rise to cells and still shape how organisms function today."

Congratulations to the team!