US-Sweden Cooperative Science: Oligonucleotide Synthesis on Minerals

该奖项将支持詹姆斯教授之间的合作研究 P. Ferris，Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute和Nils G.霍尔姆， 斯德哥尔摩大学，研究旨在了解 地球上生命的起源 特别是，各种机构的作用 作为RNA样聚合物形成催化剂的矿物质 在接近那些可能已经存在的条件下， 原始地球将被调查。 含铁矿物 可能的催化剂，用于形成这种聚合物的原始 这项研究将研究这些矿物如何有效地 催化磷酸酯键的形成。 霍尔姆医生早些时候 工作一直是作为一个地质化学家;他将准备的矿物， 确认其结构。 化学家费里斯教授将研究 它们的催化性能。 该项目汇集了化学和地质学科; Ferris教授是前生物有机反应和 这些有机结构在第一次进化中很重要， 生命系统，将与地质环境专家合作， 这些环境中可能的反应条件。 本研究 应导致确定一组矿物， 是形成结构的重要催化剂， 原始地球上生命的起源

This award will support collaborative research between Professor James P. Ferris, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Dr. Nils G. Holm, University of Stockholm, in studies aimed at understanding the beginnings of life on earth. In particular, the role of various minerals serving as catalysts for the formation of RNA-like polymers under conditions approximating those that may have existed on the primitive earth will be investigated. Iron-containing minerals were likely catalysts for the formation of such polymers on the primitive earth, and this research will study how effectively such minerals catalyze the formation of the phosphate ester bond. Dr. Holm's earlier work has been as a geological chemist; he will prepare the minerals and confirm their structure. Prof. Ferris, a chemist, will investigate their catalytic properties. This project brings together the chemical and geological disciplines; Prof. Ferris, an expert in pre-biological organic reactions and in the types of organic structures that would have been important in the first living systems, will work with an expert in geological environments and the possible reaction conditions in those environments. This research should result in the identification of a set of minerals which may have been important catalysts for the formation of structures essential to the origin of life on the primitive earth.