The Gordon Research Seminar on Origin of Life is a unique forum for graduate students, post-docs, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas.
Identifying the mechanisms governing the origin of life requires the convergence of two different perspectives: top-down, extrapolating backward in time from modern biology; and bottom-up, working from the geological and chemical conditions of prebiotic Earth (or possibly extraterrestrial environments). This conference is intended to bring early-career researchers from both perspectives together to tackle current issues in our understanding of life’s origins.
| SATURDAY |
| 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm | Arrival and Check-in |
| 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm | Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff / Welcome by the GRS Conference Chair |
| 3:45 pm - 4:30 pm | Keynote Presentation |
| 3:45 pm - 4:15 pm | Jack Szostak (Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital) |
| 4:15 pm - 4:30 pm | Discussion |
| 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm | Poster Session I |
| 6:00 pm | Dinner |
| 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm | Prebiotic Chemistry and Self-Organization |
| Discussion Leaders: Aaron Engelhart (Harvard Medical School) and Irena Mamajanov (Georgia Institute of Technology) |
| 7:30 pm - 7:50 pm | Shenglong Zhang (Harvard Medical School)
"Toward Non-enzymatic Replication in a Synthetic Cell" |
| 7:50 pm - 8:00 pm | Discussion |
| 8:00 pm - 8:20 pm | Rafal Wieczorek (University of Southern Denmark)
"Peptides as Catalysts in the RNA World" |
| 8:20 pm - 8:30 pm | Discussion |
| 8:30 pm - 8:50 pm | Nilesh Vaidya (Portland State University)
"Fragment Recycling and Error Correction in an RNA Recombinase Ribozyme through Dynamic Transesterification Chemistry" |
| 8:50 pm - 9:00 pm | Discussion |
| 9:00 pm - 9:20 pm | Omer Markovitch (Weizmann Institute of Science)
"Selection in Populations of Compositional Assemblies" |
| 9:20 pm - 9:30 pm | Discussion |
| SUNDAY |
| 7:30 am - 8:30 am | Breakfast |
| 9:00 am - 11:00 am | Ancestral Reconstruction and Laboratory Models for Early Life |
| Discussion Leader: Rebecca Turk MacLeod (Harvard University) |
| 9:00 am - 9:20 am | Gregory Fournier (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
"The Decline and Fall of the RNA world" |
| 9:20 am - 9:30 am | Discussion |
| 9:30 am - 9:50 am | Ziming Zhao (Georgia Institute of Technology)
"Ancestral Genome Reconstruction and Genome Evolution of Mycoplasma Species" |
| 9:50 am - 10:00 am | Discussion |
| 10:00 am - 10:20 am | Aaron Goldman (Princeton University)
"Oxytricha as a Model for Early Genetic Systems" |
| 10:20 am - 10:30 am | Discussion |
| 10:30 am - 10:50 am | Cihan Erkut (Max Planck Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology)
"Anhydrobiosis in Caenorhabditis Elegans" |
| 10:50 am - 11:00 am | Discussion |
| 11:00 am - 12:30 pm | Poster Session II |
| Coffee will be served in the poster area from 11:00 am - 11:30 am |
| 12:30 pm | Lunch |
| 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm | Meteorites and Early Earth Environments |
| Discussion Leader: Amy Kelly (Arizona State University) and Heshan Illangkoon (University of Florida) |
| 1:30 pm - 1:50 pm | Cecile Feuillie (Laboratoire de Géologie De Lyon -E)
"Adsorption of Nuclei Acids on Fe-Mg Rich Phyllosilicates Characteristic of Early Oceanic Environments" |
| 1:50 pm - 2:00 pm | Discussion |
| 2:00 pm - 2:20 pm | Karen Smith (Pennsylvania State University)
"Metabolic Precursors in Carbonaceous Chondrite Meteorites" |
| 2:20 pm - 2:30 pm | Discussion |
| 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm | Evaluation Period |
| Fill out GRS Evaluation Forms |
| 3:00 pm | Gordon Research Seminar ends. For those attending the associated Gordon Research Conference, please check in at the GRC Office beginning at 4:00 pm. |