Despite the considerable advances in molecular biology over the past several decades, the nature of the physical–chemical process by which inanimate matter become transformed into simplest life remains elusive. In this review, we describe recent advances in a relatively new area of chemistry, systems chemistry, which attempts to uncover the physical–chemical principles underlying that remarkable transformation. A significant development has been the discovery that within the space of chemical potentiality there exists a largely unexplored kinetic domain which could be termed dynamic kinetic chemistry. Our analysis suggests that all biological systems and associated sub-systems belong to this distinct domain, thereby facilitating the placement of biological systems within a coherent physical/chemical framework. That discovery offers new insights into the origin of life process, as well as opening the door toward the preparation of active materials able to self-heal, adapt to environmental changes, even communicate, mimicking what transpires routinely in the biological world. The road to simplest proto-life appears to be opening up.
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November 2019
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Cover Image
Cover Image
This issue of Emerging Topics in Life Sciences brings together a collection of perspectives and reviews discussing the exciting advances in synthetic biology. The cover image is an adaptation of a figure featured in the review ‘Physicochemical considerations for bottom-up synthetic biology’ by Śmigiel et al. It shows an artist's impression of a bottom-up constructed synthetic cell, representing the three basic processes of a living cell: cell fuelling (green), DNA processing (orange/red), and cell division (blue).
Review Article|
August 08 2019
Seeking to uncover biology's chemical roots
Addy Pross
Department of Chemistry, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel
Correspondence: Addy Pross ([email protected])
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
April 29 2019
Revision Received:
July 05 2019
Accepted:
July 08 2019
Online ISSN: 2397-8562
Print ISSN: 2397-8554
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society and the Royal Society of Biology
2019
Emerg Top Life Sci (2019) 3 (5): 435–443.
Article history
Received:
April 29 2019
Revision Received:
July 05 2019
Accepted:
July 08 2019
Citation
Addy Pross; Seeking to uncover biology's chemical roots. Emerg Top Life Sci 11 November 2019; 3 (5): 435–443. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/ETLS20190012
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