Peptide Synthesis, Origin-of-life, Analytical Chemistry, Modeling

Mickey’s research at RPI has broadly focused on the mechanisms by which simple amino acids could overcome the thermodynamic barriers facing aqueous peptide synthesis under plausible prebiotic conditions. Primarily, lab analysis has focused on reproducing the so-called Salt-Induced-Peptide-Formation pathway, in which salt is used as a dehydrating agent—lowering water activity of the solution and shifting reaction equilibrium toward peptide formation. Moving forward, our work seeks to better characterize how the various parameters of this and similar pathways (salt concentration, metal cations, temperature, pressure, etc.) contribute to their overall viability and to assess how that may better situate these mechanisms in an environmental context.