2. Significance and Relation to the Astrobiology Institute

The proposed research directly addresses one of the central questions posed in the Cooperative Agreement Notice for the Astrobiology Institute: ``how did living systems emerge?'' In creating computer models and laboratory examples of protocellular systems, this effort will establish the principles of organization and complexity that led to the formation of simple forms of life on the protobiological Earth. Given the absence of any extinct or extant record of this stage in the evolution of life, laboratory and computer models are the only way to discover these principles. Understanding these principles will provide insight into the more fundamental question of whether the formation of protocells is a robust event that could presumably happen on any planet within the habitable zone of a star, or if it requires a specific set of chemicals and a narrow range of environmental conditions.

As requested by the Cooperative Agreement Notice, the project advances new concepts and innovative methodologies and closely combines information technologies and computer science with biology and chemistry to solve a fundamental problem in astrobiology. In its multidisciplinary, integrated nature the project extends beyond traditional boundaries of a R&A proposal. This will be accomplished by a mulidisciplinary team led by co-investigators Andrew Pohorille and David Wolpert from NASA-Ames Research Center, Janos Lanyi from University of California, Irvine and Jack Szostak from Harvard Medical School. Other key personel are Anthony Keefe from Harvard Medical School, and Michael New and Michael Wilson from the Biomolecular and Cellular Modeling Program at NASA-Ames Research Center (headed by Pohorille) and the members of the Data Understanding group (headed by Wolpert), also at NASA-Ames Research Center. Collaborators are David Deamer from University of California, Santa Cruz, Francis Szoka from University of California, San Francisco and Andrzej Drukier from BioTraces Inc. This team possesses advanced expertise in molecular and structural biology, physical, theoretical and analytical chemistry and computer science.