SUNDAY JULY 9th, 2000
Evening Session | Introduction: The origin and evolution of Archaean life |
Mixer
Chair: Laura F. Landweber (Princeton University)
George E. Fox (Houston University)
"The Evolution of Translation"
Chris House (Penn State University)
"From Genomes to Microfossils: the search for ancient biochemical diversity"
MONDAY JULY 10th, 2000
Morning session | Environmental evolution on the early Earth |
Chair: Jim Kasting (Penn State University)
Paul Knauth (Arizona State University)
"Archean climate and ocean salinity: implications for atmospheric O2 and early terrestrial life"
Hiroshi Ohmoto (Penn State University)
"Oxygen-carbon-sulfur-iron cycles on the early Earth"
Kai-Uwe Hinrichs (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
"Methane-consuming archaea in marine sediments: Could they explain the light kerogens at 2.8 Ga?"
MONDAY JULY 10th, 2000
Evening session | Prebiotic chemistry- recent advances in sugar synthesis |
Chair: Alan W. Schwartz (University of Nijmegen)
Geoffrey Zubay (Columbia University)
"A reaction sequence intended to simulate a prebiotic pathway for ribose synthesis"
Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy (The Scripps Research Institute)
"The synthesis of sugar phosphates"
Arthur Weber (NASA Ames Research Center)
"Recent results supporting the Sugar Model"
TUESDAY JULY 11th, 2000
Morning session | The RNA world |
Chair: Jack Szostak (Harvard University)
Jack W. Szostak (Harvard University)
"Compartmentalization and RNA evolution"
David P. Bartel (MIT)
"RNA-catalyzed RNA synthesis"
Michael Yarus (University of Colorado)
"RNA-catalyzed acyl-transfer and peptide synthesis"
TUESDAY JULY 11th, 2000
Evening session | The last common ancestor and the tree of life |
Chair: Janet Siefert (University of Houston)
Nicolas Galtier (Universite Montpellier)
"Molecular evidence for a non-hyperthermophilic ancestor to extant life forms"
Patrick Forterre (Universite Paris-Sud)
"The univeral tree of life and the nature of hyperthermophiles: perspectives from phylogenomic studies"
Alfonso Valencia (Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia)
"Conservation and specialization of protein-protein interactions: from the last common ancestor to today"
WEDNESDAY JULY 12th, 2000
Morning session | Horizontal gene transfer |
Chair: J. Peter Gogarten (University of Conencticut)
Jeffrey Lawrence (University of Pittsburgh)
"How microbial lifestyle affects rate of horizontal genetic transfer"
Mark Ragan (Institute for Marine Biosciences, NRC)
"Thinking laterally about genomes"
Patrick Keeling (University of British Columbia)
"Lateral Gene Transfer in Eukaryotic Genome Evolution"
WEDNESDAY JULY 12th, 2000
Evening session | Origin and evolution of metabolism |
Chair: David W. Deamer
Andrew Ellington (University of Texas)
"Evolutionary modification of the composition of living systems"
Roy A. Jensen (University of Florida)
"Evolution of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in the light of emerging genomic data"
THURSDAY JULY 13th, 2000
Morning session | The cosmic search for life |
Chair: Dave DesMarais (NASA/Ames)
Jack Farmer (Arizona State University)
"Exploring for Martian Life: past results and future opportunities"
Athena Coustenis (Observatoire du Paris)
"Titan: an exobiotic environment in our Solar System "
James Kasting (Penn State University)
"Possible bio-indicator gases in extrasolar planet atmospheres."
THURSDAY JULY 13th, 2000
Evening session | Business session |
Chair: Antonio Lazcano (UNAM)
Vice Chair: Ken Nealson (JPL)
Banquet
Keynote Speaker: Barry Blumberg (Astrobiology Institute, NASA)
Adjourn after breakfast
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