Saturday
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Arrival and Check-in
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff / Welcome from the GRS Chair
3:45 pm - 4:30 pm
Early Evidence for Life on Earth, Mars and Life in the Universe
Discussion Leader: Teresa Fornaro (Carnegie Institution of Washington, USA)
3:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Tara Djokic (University of New South Wales, Australia)
"Earliest Signs of Life in ~3.5 Ga Hot Springs Provide Insights for Origins of Life"
4:00 pm - 4:05 pm
Discussion
4:05 pm - 4:20 pm
Sukrit Ranjan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
"The Surface UV Environment on Planets Orbiting M-Dwarfs: Need for Experimental Follow-Up and Implications for Origins-of-Life Chemistry"
4:20 pm - 4:25 pm
Discussion
4:25 pm - 4:30 pm
General Discussion: Conditions on Terrestrial Worlds for an Origin and Evolution of Life
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Prebiotic Carbon Fixation, Monomer Sources and Polymerization Mechanisms
Discussion Leader: David Fialho (Center for Chemical Evolution, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:45 pm
Erika Flores (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA)
"Prebiotic Amino Acid Synthesis and Phosphorus Chemistry in Early Earth Hydrothermal Vents"
7:45 pm - 7:50 pm
Discussion
7:50 pm - 8:05 pm
Chaitanya Mungi (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, India)
"Synthesis and Characterization of Prebiotic Informational Molecules"
8:05 pm - 8:10 pm
Discussion
8:10 pm - 8:25 pm
Benedict Smail (Portland State University, USA)
"Spontaneous RNA-RNA Recombination to Form Structure from Randomness"
8:25 pm - 8:30 pm
Discussion
8:30 pm - 8:45 pm
Martin Solano (Center for Chemical Evolution, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
"Polymerization and Assembly of Plausible Protopeptides"
8:45 pm - 8:50 pm
Discussion
8:50 pm - 9:05 pm
Jennifer Lago (University of South Florida, USA)
"Exploring Alternative Solvents"
9:05 pm - 9:10 pm
Discussion
9:10 pm - 9:30 pm
General Discussion: Conditions for Sustained, Away-from-Equilibrium Chemistry Subject to Cycles of Evolution
Sunday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 11:00 am
Compartmentalization and Polymerization
Discussion Leader: Milena Popovic (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA)
9:00 am - 9:15 am
Anna Wang (Massachusetts General Hospital, USA)
"Environmental Factors Affecting Self-Assembly of Fatty Acid Vesicles"
9:15 am - 9:20 am
Discussion
9:20 am - 9:35 am
Ryan Lorig-Roach (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA)
"Prebiotic Synthesis of Nucleotide Polymers"
9:35 am - 9:40 am
Discussion
9:40 am - 9:55 am
Richard Gillams (Earth Life Science Institute, Japan)
"Computational Predictions of the Aggregation of Amphiphiles for Early Compartmentalization"
9:55 am - 10:00 am
Discussion
10:00 am - 10:15 am
Raghav Poudyal (Pennsylvania State Univeristy, USA)
"Essential RNA Functions - Polymerization, Small-Molecule Binding and Catalysis Under Membraneless Compartment Conditions"
10:15 am - 10:20 am
Discussion
10:20 am - 10:35 am
Madhan Tirumalai (University of Houston, USA)
"Increase I Complexity in an RNA World: Setting the Stage for the Emergence of the 'Pregenote'"
10:35 am - 10:40 am
Discussion
10:40 am - 11:00 am
General Discussion: Mechanisms for Combinatorial Selection and Evolution of Sets of Functional Polymers
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Poster Session
Coffee will be served in the poster area from 11:00 am - 11:30 am
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Evolution in Life's Early Phases
Discussion Leader: Jessica Hobson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)
1:30 pm - 1:45 pm
Anton Petrov (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
"Protein-RNA Mutualism"
1:45 pm - 1:50 pm
Discussion
1:50 pm - 2:05 pm
Elizaveta Guseva (Gartner, Inc., USA)
"Foldamer Hypothesis for the Growth and Sequence Differentiation of Prebiotic Polymers"
2:05 pm - 2:10 pm
Discussion
2:10 pm - 2:30 pm
General Discussion: Alternative Models for the Origin of the Translation System: RNA-First or Protein-First?
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Evaluation Period
Fill in GRS Evaluation Forms
3:00 pm
Seminar Concludes