New Center Expands Origin of Life Studies

Scientific investigation of life's origins, once mostly a theoretical enterprise, has gained momentum in recent years as biologists have discovered hardy microbes in extreme terrestrial habitats and possible hints of lifelike structures in a Martian meteorite. One recent sign that the field is alive and well is the establishment of a new NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) for the Study of Origins of Life in the Albany area of New York. MULTIPLE YEARS: James Ferris, professor of chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., is director of the four-year $4 million grant that is funding the center. James Ferris, professor of chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., is director of the four-year $4 million grant that is funding the center. Ferris's large body of work on the polymerization of RNA nucleotides on clay surfaces is widely respected among origin of life researchers, some comparing his trademark experimental approach of cooking primordial "crepes" to Stanley Miller 's famous "prebiotic soup" experiments of 1953. The NASA funding will allow an already-established eclectic group of scientists to move their origin of life research from the back burner to the forefront and confront the compelling questions of how chemical combinations long ago became the precursors of cells. "Most of the people on the grant haven't worked directly on the origin of life up to this point, they've worked on the fringes. The grant will enable them to focus on the whole question," says Ferris. KNOWLEDGE FROM ABOVE: Wayne Roberge, RPI associate professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, studies the chemistry of interstellar clouds. The NSCORT program began in 1992, and the new RPI center is the only one of the 11 nationwide to repeat a theme already taken, which reflects the growing interest in the field. The existing San Diego-based Origin of Life NSCORT has a membership list that reads like a who's who of the discipline, including Miller, of the University of California at San Diego, Leslie Orgel at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Gustaf Arrhenius and Jeffrey Bada at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Gerald Joyce at the Scripps Research Institute. But as the West Coast group advanced their interests, a cluster of origin of life researchers was also brewing into existence on the East Coast, becoming more prominent when they held a symposium on the origin of life at a regional meeting of the American Chemical Society in Saratoga Springs in June 1997 (R. Lewis, Science, 277 :1034-5, 1997), to which their California counterparts came enthusiastically. The funding bonanza from NASA also reflects changing priorities at the space agency. "NASA administrator Daniel Goldin has fostered a stronger push to investigate origin of life questions," says Ferris. "Origins goals--searching out clues to fundamental questions about the universe and life itself--will drive technology and science that will rewrite textbooks in physics, chemistry, biology, and, quite possibly, history. Origins is one of the boldest challenges NASA has taken on, and the results could literally change the way humans think about the universe and their place in it," Goldin said to Congress on May 22, 1996. He reiterated these points almost verbatim to a packed audience of several hundred at the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting in Atlanta in May this year, where he encouraged attendees in all fields to start thinking about how their research interests might fit into the quest for life beyond Earth. According to NASA's Web site, three of the five goals of the agency's Origins program deal with life: "Do other planets have life?" "How did life begin on Earth?" and "Is there life outside our solar system?" The other questions address galaxy and star formation. And from July 20 to 22, scientists with an interest in origin of life studies, including Nobel laureates Walter Gilbert of Harvard University and Stanley Cohen of the Stanford University School of Medicine, met at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.. to plan the course of the emerging field of astrobiology (S. Bunk, The Scientist , 12[13]:1, June 22, 1998) over the next five years. The agency defines astrobiology as "the search for the origin, evolution, and destiny of life in the universe." INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE: RPI professor of earth and environmental sciences Michael Gaffey studies asteroids and meteorites. The expertises of the new NSCORT participants fit as snugly as puzzle pieces, creating an exciting whole. "The raison d'être of the NSCORT is to foster collaboration among scientists with diverse backgrounds. My research focuses on the activation of phosphate and energy storage in small molecules. This occupies a niche between the work of John Delano on the geochemical history of our planet and the efforts of Jim Ferris to model the steps toward forming RNA-like oligomers," says William Hagan Jr. , who coordinated last year's symposium and is an associate professor of chemistry at the College of St. Rose in Albany. He also is an associated scientist with NSCORT. "A fundamental issue of mutual concern is how a somewhat oxidized environment on the early Earth can be reconciled with the presumed requirement for reducing conditions in prebiotic organic synthesis," he adds. Hagan plans to use NSCORT funds to support undergraduate summer research. Delano, an associate director of NSCORT, reports that some of the funding will be used to heighten public awareness of and interest in origin of life research, through various community outreach and educational programs. "There will be regular, short segments produced by WAMC (the local public radio station) for international distribution, and an origin of life course taught regularly at RPI. And we hope to also include motivated high school science students in our research efforts." ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: Professor Douglas Whittet researches habitable areas around sunlike stars. Overall, the new NSCORT will greatly expand the extent of collaboration among undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and faculty at the participating institutions, Delano says. In addition to Ferris and Delano, the principal investigators include Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, chair of biology at RPI, who investigates introns and deep subsurface microorganisms; RPI professor of earth and environmental sciences Michael Gaffey, who studies asteroids and meteorites; and Wayne Roberge, RPI associate professor of physics, applied physics and astronomy, who studies the chemistry of interstellar clouds. Douglas Whittet, a professor in the same department as Roberge, is also an associate director of the NSCORT, and he examines synthesis of prebiotic molecules in interstellar clouds and habitable areas around sunlike stars. Eleven associated scientists are also part of the program, including two NASA researchers. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, chair of biology at RPI, investigates introns and deep subsurface microorganisms. Probing life's beginnings is perhaps the ultimate in interdisciplinary science. "Origin of life studies deal with biochemistry (nature of organic molecules and reactions), geochemistry (nature of environments where the origin of life could have occurred), biology (nature of the earliest organisms), and astrophysics (nature and processes that produced and contributed organic molecules in and from space). Our NSCORT involves all of these components," says Delano. An official stamp of approval on a field that not too long ago was considered offbeat, if not pie-in-the-sky, will also allow the researchers, and their students, to have a lot of fun. Sums up Ferris: "The key here is that we are all working together to understand the origin of life. Although there are individual projects, the key to success will be the ability to interact and help each other. That's what I'm excited about." Ricki Lewis, a freelance science writer based in Scotia, N.Y., is the author of several biology textbooks. She can be reached online at rickilewis@nasw.org.

New Center Expands Origin of Life Studies

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Ricki Lewis

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August 1998

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