The ultimate goal of this project is to create, under prebiotic conditions, a self-sustained cell that can uptake nutrients from the surrounding conditions to assure its growth, division and evolution. In our laboratory, we believe that minerals, which constitute the entire Earth, have played key roles in the emergence and evolution of the first cell or “protocell” and that at four different levels:
1- In the selection of lipid amphiphiles to form the fittest boundary.
2- In generating energy into the protocell by a trans-membrane electron transfer reaction.
3- In promoting in vesiculo RNA and peptides polymerization.
4- In creating channels within the membrane to selectively concentrate ions and nutrients inside the protocell.
All these sub-projects are currently under investigation and many interesting results are await to be communicated.