Chemical Evolution & Origins of Life

Tracing the molecular steps from chemistry to life.

Through long-running collaborations including the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, we use mass spectrometry to study how simple molecules assemble into the complex chemistry that precedes life — probing prebiotic reactions and the emergence of molecular complexity.

origins of lifeprebiotic chemistrychemical evolutionastrobiology

Selected publications

All publications→

2022
A shared prebiotic formation of neopterins and guanine nucleosides from pyrimidine bases
, Cesar Menor-Salvan; Bradley Burcar; Marcos Bouza; David Fialho; Facundo Fernandez; Nicholas V. Hud, Chemistry, 2022, 28(39), e202200714. [A study on the origin of nucleic acids in prebiotic chemistry (20% contribution)]. Featured on the Journal cover
2022
Thioesters provide a plausible prebiotic path to proto-peptides
, Moran Frenkel-Pinter, Marcos Bouza, Facundo M. Fernández, Luke J. Leman, Loren Dean Williams, Nicholas V. Hud, Aikomari Guzman-Martinez. Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 2569
2020
Prebiotic origin of pre-RNA building blocks in a urea “warm little pond
scenario.", Cesar Menor-Salvan, Marcos Bouza, David M. Fialho, Bradley T. Burcar, Facundo M. Fernández, Nicholas V. Hud, ChemBioChem. 2020, 21, 3504–351
2020
Proline Behavior in Model Prebiotic Peptides Formed by Wet-Dry Cycling
, Jabbarrius N. Ervin¥, Marcos Bouza, Facundo M. Fernández, and Jay G. Forsythe*, ACS Earth Space Chem. 2020, 4, 8, 1349–1359
2019
The Oligomerization of Glucose Under Plausible Prebiotic Conditions
, Zhao Li, Li Li, Kristin. R. McKenna, Meranda Schmidt¥, Pamela Pollet, Leslie Gelbaum, Facundo M. Fernández*, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy*, and Charles L. Liotta*. Origins Life Evol. Biosph., 2019, 49(4), 225-240.
2019
Compositional Characterization of Complex Protopeptide Libraries via Triboelectric Nanogenerator Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry
Marcos Bouza, Anyin Li, Jay G. Forsythe, Anton Petrov, Zhong Lin Wang, and Facundo M. Fernández. Rap. Commun. Mass Spectrom. 2019, 33(16), 1293-1300
2017
Elongation of model prebiotic proto-peptides by continuous monomer feeding
Sheng-Sheng Yu, Martin D. Solano, Matthew K. Blanchard, Molly T. Soper-Hopper, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Facundo M. Fernández, Nicholas V. Hud, F. Joseph Schork, and Martha A. Grover*, Macromol., 2017, 50, 9286–9294
2017
Surveying the Sequence Diversity of Model Prebiotic Peptides by Mass Spectrometry
, Jay G. Forsythe, Anton S. Petrov, W. Calvin Millar¥, Sheng-Sheng Yu, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Martha A. Grover, Nicholas V. Hud, and Facundo M. Fernández*. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2017. 114, E7652-E7659
2016
Kinetics of Prebiotic Depsipeptide Formation from the Ester-amide Exchange Reaction
, Sheng-Sheng Yu, Jay G. Forsythe, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Facundo M. Fernández, Nicholas V. Hud, F. Joseph Schork, and Martha A. Grover. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2016, 18, 28441-28450
2016
Quantitation of α-hydroxy acids in complex prebiotic mixtures via liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
, Eric T. Parker, H. James Cleaves II, Jeffrey L. Bada, Facundo M. Fernández*. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom., 2016, 30(18), 2043-51.
2015
Nucleoside phosphorylation by the mineral schreibersite
, Maheen Gull, Michael Mojica, Facundo M. Fernández, David Gaul, Thomas M. Orlando, Charles L. Liotta, & Matthew A. Pasek Sci. Rep., 2015, 5, 17198
2015
Ester-Mediated Amide Bond Formation Driven by Wet-Dry Cycles: A Possible Path to Polypeptides on the Prebiotic Earth
, Jay G. Forsythe, Sheng-Sheng Yu, Irena Mamajanov, Martha A. Grover, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy* Facundo M. Fernández,* and Nicholas V. Hud*. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54(34), 9871–9875 [First demonstration of the polyester-mediated origin of polypeptides (40% contribution)]. Highly cited article.

+ 5 more in this area on the publications page.