|
ORIGINS OF LIFE WORKSHOP
ATLANTA OCTOBER
14-17
(Return to Main Page)
UPDATED TENTATIVE
SCHEDULE
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14
Registration will be open 6-8 pm
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15
09:00 Introductory Welcome: Steven Benner. Foundation
for Applied Molecular Evolution.
Monday Morning. Why we want RNA
09:05 Principal Investigator Presentation: Elisa Biondi. Foundation
for Applied Molecular Evolution.
Selection of receptors, ligands, and catalysts from an expanded
genetic alphabet.
09:40 Special Invitee: Jennifer
Heemstra. Emory University.
Evolution of artificial genetic polymers capable of small-molecule
recognition.
10:10 Special Invitee: David Perrin. University of
British Columbia.
Selection of RNase A-mimicking DNAzymes with amines, imidazoles,
and guanidines.
10:40 Break 15 min
10:55 Special Invitee: Ada Yonath. Weizmann
Institute.
Recent advances in functional RNA.
11:40 Panel-Audience Dialog: Why is it difficult to get
robust function from oligo libraries?
12:20 Lunch
Monday Afternoon. Geology
14:00
Principal Investigator Presentation: Steven Benner. Foundation
for Applied Molecular Evolution.
Why RNA-first life could not have emerged on Earth. Paradox
construction in origins research.
14:40 Special Invitee: Robert Hazen. Carnegie
Institution for Science.
(Tentative) Mineralogy of the Hadean.
15:10 Principal Investigator Presentation: Stephen
Mojzsis. University of Colorado.
Unexpected expectations in the quest to understand life's
emergence on the Hadean Earth.
15:30 Break 15 min
15:45 Special Invitee: Ramon Brasser. ELSI &
Tokyo Institute of Technology.
When was the Earth ready to host life?
16:15 Special Invitee: Elizabeth Bell. UCLA
Evidence from the zircon record for early Earth environments.
16:45 Special Invitee: Dustin Trail. University
of Rochester.
How can Hadean (> 4 Ga) zircons help us constrain prebiotic
environments.
17:15
Panel-Audience Dialog: What must we do to make our view of the Hadean more
complete?
18:00 Break for Dinner
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16
Tuesday Morning. Complexity and cofactors.
09:00 Principal Investigator Presentation: George Fox. University
of Houston.
Exploration of RNA sequence space in the absence of a replicase.
09:40 Special Invitee: Clemens
Richert. University of Stuttgart.
The Peptido RNA World.
10:20 Break 15 min
10:35 Principal Investigator Presentation: Niles Lehman. Portland
State University.
What complexity in biopolymers is needed for the transition to
life?
11:20 Panel-Audience Dialog: How to explore "cofactor
space" effectively.
12:00 Lunch
Tuesday Afternoon. Prebiotic chemistry for RNA and alternatives
14:00 Principal Investigator Presentation: Hyo-Joong Kim. Firebird
Biomolecular Sciences.
The organic chemistry of RNA building blocks.
14:30 Special Invitee: Thomas Carell. Ludwig
Maximilian University.
The origin of canonical and non-canonical nucleosides.
15:00 Special Invitee: Matthew Powner. University
College London.
Prebiotic selection and assembly of peptides and nucleotides.
15:30 Break 15 min
15:45 Special Invitee: David Fialho. Georgia
Institute of Technology.
Considering Alternative Sugars and Bases: A Case for Pre-RNA.
16:15 Special Invitee: Ram
Krishnamurthy. The Scripps Research Institute.
RNA may not be the first, but we need to understand whether it can
be formed prebiotically.
16:45 Panel-Audience Dialog: Can we solve the RNA
building block problem?
17:45 Pick up boxed dinner in lobby and board bus to Fernbank. Departure at 6pm.
19:00 Fernbank Planetarium presentation
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17
Wednesday Morning. Phosphates
09:00 Principal Investigator Presentation: Andrew
Ellington. University of Texas.
Evolving replicators based on phosphorothioate backbones.
09:40 Special Invitee: Tuomas
Lönnberg. University of Turku.
Phosphorothioate oligonucleotides by condensation of nucleosides
and phosphorous acid in the presence of elemental sulfur.
10:10 Special Invitee: Matthew Pasek. University
of South Florida.
Phosphorylation of nucleosides.
10:40 Break 15 min
Tools
10:55 Principal Investigator Presentation: Andrej Luptak. UC
Irvine.
Towards RNA-catalyzed ATP synthesis.
11:30 Principal Investigator Presentation: Sourav Roy. UNC Chapel
Hill.
Dissecting oligopeptide-oligonucleotide interactions: leads from
laboratory evolution.
12:00 Lunch
Wednesday Afternoon. Immediate and future developments
14:00 Special Invitee: Chosen from
the attendees.
To be announced.
14:30 Special Invitee: Chosen from
the attendees.
To be announced.
15:00 Panel-Audience Dialog: What are the next
steps in prebiotic research?
16:00 pm Adjourn
Remarks
A. This is not your normal conference. We will be
adjusting the program in real time as events during the workshop suggest it
should be adjusted. We have left a slot open for a presentation from an
attendee.
B. Participants in the Panel-Audience discussions will be
self-selected, on stage and from the audience. Their purpose is to get the best
minds in this field away from their PowerPoints and talking interactively with
each other about the problems at hand. Models for such discussions include:
(a)
The 2002 Astrobiology meeting at NASA Ames. The schedule was cleared to allow
Bill Schopf and Martin Brasier to debate the biogenicity of carbon material in
Australian cherts, with the floor open for remarks from an expert audience; the
format proved remarkably effective (Nature 417, 782 (2002)).
(b)
A workshop in the 1970s discussing the latest data from analyses of Moon rocks.
Participants went into the conference not knowing how the Moon was formed, but
came out with a consensus model for how the Moon was formed Cameron,
A. G. W.; Ward, W. R. (March 1976). "The Origin of the Moon".
Abstracts of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. 7: 120–122. Bibcode:1976LPI.....7..120C.
We
would like very much to walk out of this workshop with, if not a solution to
the prebiotic synthesis of oligomeric RNA, then at least a clear understanding
of where the remaining problems are and how we should approach solving them. Or, of course, that they cannot be solved at all, because life emerged in a different way. |
