Lezing | Van Leeuwenhoek Lecture on BioScience
Energy and matter at the origin of life
- Nick Lane (University College London, Evolutionary Biochemistry)
- Datum
- donderdag 27 juni 2019
- Tijd
- Locatie
-
LMUY
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Zaal
- 04.28
Let op: deze lezing is in het Engels
Cells need a continuous flow of energy and matter to grow. All life on Earth uses the unanticipated mechanism of electrochemical charges across membranes to generate ATP and to fix CO2. The protein machinery required to generate and harness this charge is extremely sophisticated, raising the question of how such a universally conserved process arose in early cells. Nick Lane will use the mechanism of CO2 fixation in methanogens as a guide to the possible prebiotic origins of growth and intermediary metabolism. He will show that equivalent electrochemical gradients are found across inorganic pores in alkaline hydrothermal vents, and that proton flux may have driven the difficult reaction between H2 and CO2 to form organic matter and ultimately the first cells.
About Nick Lane
Nick Lane is professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His research focuses on how energy flow constrains evolution from the origin of life to the traits of complex multicellular organisms. He is a co-director of the new Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution (CLOE) at UCL, and author of four celebrated books on life's origin and evolution (his most recent book, 2015: The Vital Question: Why is Life the Way it is?, Energy, Evolution and the Origins of Complex Life). His work has been recognized by the Biochemical Society Award in 2015 and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize in 2016.