EAGER Collaborative Proposal: A microfluidic platform for the discovery of new, life-like chemical systems

凭借该奖项，化学部门的生命过程化学项目正在资助威斯康星州大学麦迪逊分校的大卫·鲍姆博士及其合作者和伊利诺伊大学-芝加哥分校的大卫·艾丁顿博士开发微流体平台，用于发现新的、类似生命的化学系统。人们对具有繁殖和进化能力的新的生命样化学系统如何出现缺乏了解。研究人员正在开发一种设备来筛选复杂的化学混合物，以便找到可以在矿物表面生长的生命系统，并且随着时间的推移可以进化出更有效的生长。该项目的目标是发现新的类生命化学系统，这将促进对地球上生命起源的理解。这项研究的新实验方法是用来通过演示文稿吸引学生和公众。它也与不同的化学家，包括高中化学教师，在公民科学的努力，以了解生命的化学起源的性质共享。这个研究项目涉及建立一个简单的微流体装置和相关的实验范式，用于流动复杂的化学混合物，在一个条纹，在矿物表面。这个表面包含可能的自催化循环的构建块以及无机或有机能源。在一个多天的实验窗口内，条纹在矿物表面上移位。该实验布置使得能够选择能够沿表面沿着传播自身的吸附自催化集。此外，如果这种自催化系统中存在空间变化，该设备会选择能够更快地在新遇到的矿物上定居的变体。在其他分析方法中，X射线光电子能谱法用于检测吸附碳或氮浓度的变化。这种变化表明了对选择的适应性反应，以增强定植和生长。当检测到新的自催化化学系统时，表征其化学组成。

With this award, the Chemistry of Life Processes Program in the Chemistry Division is funding Dr. David Baum and collaborators from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and Dr. David Eddington from the University of Illinois - Chicago to develop a microfluidic platform for the discovery of new, life-like chemical systems. There is a lack of knowledge about how new life-like chemical systems, having the capacity for reproducing and evolving, can emerge. The researchers are developing a device to screen complex chemical mixtures in order to find life-like systems that can grow over a mineral surface and can evolve more efficient growth over time. The goal of the project is the discovery of new life-like chemical systems, which would advance the understanding of how life originated on earth. The new experimental approach of this research is used to engage students and the public through presentations. It is also shared with diverse chemists, including high-school chemistry teachers, in a citizen-science effort to understand the nature of life's chemical origins.This research project involves building a simple microfluidic device and an associated experimental paradigm for flowing a complex chemical mixture, in a stripe, over a mineral surface. This surface contains possible building blocks of autocatalytic cycles as well as inorganic or organic sources of energy. The stripe is displaced across the mineral surface over a multiple day experimental window. This experimental arrangement enables selection for adsorbed autocatalytic sets that can propagate themselves along the surface. Furthermore, if there is spatial variation in such autocatalytic systems, the device selects for variants that can more rapidly colonize newly encountered mineral. Among other analytical methods, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy is used to detect changes in the concentration of adsorbed carbon or nitrogen. Such changes would indicate an adaptive response to selection for enhanced colonization and growth. When new autocatalytic chemical systems are detected, their chemical composition is characterized.