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Orr Yarkoni - PhD student PROJECT TITLE: Protocell Assembly My aims are to develop a self replicating artificial cell or "Protocell". I am hoping to form a protocell via the self assembly of molecules that would have existed in prebiotic times. In this project I am combining an investigation into origins of life on Earth with the applications motivated development of a protocell. In particular I would like to understand how cellular life arose under prebiotic conditions taking into account what the likely biochemical and physical environment would have been. It is envisaged that such a protocell could act as a simplified model for a modern day cell in terms of understanding cellular signalling, cellular division and cellular growth. From a technology standpoint artificial life would have significant applications ranging from information processing to cancer research to name but a few. This bottom up approach to artificial life, relying on the self assembly of simple molecules, differs markedly from the top down approach pioneered by Craig Venter. His methodology takes an already existing cell with its associated machinery and uses it as a vector for synthetic DNA. Along the way many fundamental processes will be investigated including lipid vesicle fusion, artificial signal transduction and the formation of ion channels in membranes. Therefore a number of biophysical techniques will be employed including a single molecule fluorescence. atomic force microscopy and surface sensitive spectroscopy.
Figure 1. Atomic force microscopy image of lipid vesicles fusing on a mica surface. The doughnut shapes are due to collapse of vesicles when they interact with the mica. Fusion of multiple vesicles can be observed. |
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