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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Prof. Nick Hud, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Georgia Tech
Searching for the Origin of RNA
Most current proposals for the origin of life include the hypothesis that RNA existed before the advent of coded proteins. However, it is not clear how the first RNA polymers could have formed or replicated without the aid of enzymes. We hypothesize that RNA evolved from a proto-RNA polymer that was structurally similar to RNA, but much easier to form under prebiotic conditions. I will discuss recent results from our laboratory that are helping to refine and advance this hypothesis of an early stage of life, as well as how this work is relevant to the development of "bottom up" synthetic biology.
