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

有了这个奖项，化学部门的生命过程化学项目将资助来自威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的David Baum博士和来自伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的David Eddington博士开发一个微流体平台，用于发现新的类生命化学系统。对于具有繁殖和进化能力的新的类生命化学系统是如何出现的，人们缺乏了解。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类生命系统，并随着时间的推移进化出更有效的生长方式。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通过演讲来吸引学生和公众。它也被不同的化学家分享，包括高中化学教师，以一种公民科学的方式来理解生命化学起源的本质。本研究项目包括建立一个简单的微流体装置和相关的实验范例，用于在矿物表面上以条纹形式流动复杂的化学混合物。这个表面包含了自催化循环以及无机或有机能源的可能构建块。在一个多天的实验窗口中，条纹在矿物表面移位。这种实验安排可以选择吸附的自催化装置，这些装置可以沿着表面传播。此外，如果在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殖民新遇到的矿物的变体。在其他分析方法中，x射线光发射光谱用于检测吸附碳或氮浓度的变化。这样的变化可能表明一种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体系时，对其化学成分进行表征。

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.