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CAREER: Reconstructing Primordial Life of the Lost RNA World — NSF Award to University of Notre Dame (IN, $925,937)

Understanding the earliest chemical reactions and molecules involved in the first living cells is a long standing question in biology. Early life is thought to have used RNA as its genetic material as well as its enzymes. Therefore, it is important to understand how RNA molecules could have facilitated the emergence of

Award titleCAREER: Reconstructing Primordial Life of the Lost RNA World
Award ID2540950
AwardeeUniversity of Notre Dame
CityNOTRE DAME
StateIN
Amount obligated$925,937
Principal investigatorSaurja DasGupta
ProgramMolecular Biosciences
Start date06/01/2026
AbstractUnderstanding the earliest chemical reactions and molecules involved in the first living cells is a long standing question in biology. Early life is thought to have used RNA as its genetic material as well as its enzymes. Therefore, it is important to understand how RNA molecules could have facilitated the emergence of the first self-replicating cells. This project addresses this fundamental question by building simplified models of primitive cells, or protocells, in the laboratory. These protoc
SourceNSF Awards

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