CBCI: The Origins Project

乔治亚理工学院的Nicholas Hud、斯佩尔曼学院的Jean-Marie Dimandja、杰克逊州立大学的Jerzy Leszczynski、埃默里大学的David Lynn和乔治亚理工学院的Thomas Orlando获得了化学键中心（CBC）的一项奖励，以支持他们开展生命化学起源研究的第一阶段项目。该项目基于这样一种理论，即生命是从原始生物的前体进化而来的，这些前体自发地组装成类似rna的聚合物。正在解决的问题包括：哪些分子可能存在于益生元化学库存中？什么分子可以自组装形成类似rna的聚合物？哪些分子可以作为益生元催化剂，促进其他分子的形成或组装？CBC有三个主要目标：(i)确定类rna聚合物的潜在构建块，并了解形成它们的反应；（ii）揭示可能的早期代谢和自组装机制，这些机制可能选择性地产生并将这些构建块偶联成更复杂的分子，最终导致rna样聚合物；（iii）开发一种分布式的网络方法，让本科生和他们当地的导师参与进来，以提高我们对益生元化学反应模型的了解。这项工作在许多方面产生了广泛的影响：通过妇女和代表性不足的少数民族的参与，特别是通过HBCU的伙伴机构斯佩尔曼和杰克逊州立大学；通过发展一项高中推广计划，使高中化学教师能够进行益生元实验；进一步发展现有的“生命起源的化学”课程，并为新生举办“秩序的起源”系列研究研讨会；并计划通过广播、地方公共电视、计算机图形学和基于网络的教育模块传播有关该中心的信息。

Nicholas Hud of Georgia Institute of Technology, Jean-Marie Dimandja of Spelman College, Jerzy Leszczynski of Jackson State Univeristy, David Lynn of Emory University and Thomas Orlando of Georgia Tech are supported by an award from the Chemical Bonding Centers (CBC) for a Phase I program to carry out research on the chemical origin of life. The project is based on the theory that life evolved from prebiotic precursors that spontaneously assembled into RNA-like polymers. Questions that are being addressed include: What molecules were potentially present in the prebiotic chemical inventory? What molecules can self-assemble to form RNA-like polymers? And what molecules could have acted as prebiotic catalysts for the formation or assembly of other molecules? There are three principal objectives of the CBC: (i) to determine the potential building blocks of RNA-like polymers and to understand the reactions which form them; (ii) to uncover possible early metabolisms and mechanisms of self-assembly that could have selectively produced and coupled these building blocks into more complex molecules, eventually leading to RNA-like polymers; and (iii) to develop a distributed, cyber-enabled approach to advancing our knowledge of model prebiotic chemical reactions that will involve undergraduate students and their local mentors. The work is having a broad impact in a number of ways: through the participation of women and under-represented minorities, particularly through the HBCU partner institutions of Spelman and Jackson State University; through the development of a high school outreach program that is making prebiotic experiments accessible to high school chemistry teachers; by further developing an existing course on "Chemistry of the Origin of Life" and through a research seminar series for freshmen on the "Origins of Order"; and through plans to disseminate information about the center through radio, local public television, computer graphics, and web-based educational modules.