Welcome to OoLEN

We are an international post-disciplinary network of early-career researchers on the origin of life.

About Us

Understanding the origin of life (OoL) is among the greatest unsolved mysteries and represents an exciting frontier for science in the 21st century. The research on OoL is based on a variety of different, often dividing hypotheses and is only slowly transforming into a united field. The Origin of Life…Continue reading “About Us”

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Communication

OoLEN defends honest and responsible communication with the media and the public. Skimming through the media coverage about the origin…

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Community

At OoLEN we are actively engaged in the creation of a secure, connected and healthy community. We stand strongly against…

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Post-Disciplinarity

Members of OoLEN are united by their interest in one big question: How does life start? This question existed well…

Job Opportunities

Postdoc Position

https://www.nature.com/naturecareers/job/postdoctoral-position-evolution-of-microorganisms-and-physicalchemical-limits-of-survival-espci-paristech-737123 Expires May 02 2021 Paris, France

Jana Bocková

Postdoc CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France Keywords: chirality, asymmetric photolysis, photochemistry, astrochemistry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry jana.bockova@univ-cotedazur.fr

Luke Steller

23 Mar 202123 Mar 2021

PhD student Australian Centre for Astrobiology, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia Keywords: Boron, Ribose, Vesicles, Stromatolites, Hot Springs l.steller@unsw.edu.au

Nino Lauber

PhD student Biofisika Institute (CSIC-UPV/EHU) and Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of the Basque Country, Spain Keywords: Systems Biology, Systems Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Minimal Metabolism, Philosophy of…

Nemanja Cvjetan

PhD student ETH Zurich, Switzerland Keywords: Vesicles, Compartments, Systems Chemistry nemanja.cvjetan@mat.ethz.ch

David Kuster

PhD student Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany Keywords: RNA modifications, Epitranscriptomics, RNA phase separation, Aptamers, Ribozymes kuster@mpi-cbg.de

Ghjuvan Grimaud

Postdoc APC microbiome/Teagasc, Cork, Ireland Keywords: Evolution of metabolism, metabolic networks ghjuvan.grimaud@teagasc.ie

Adrian Jinich

11 Mar 202125 Mar 2021

Postdoc Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA Keywords: thermodynamics of biochemical redox reactions adj2010@med.cornell.edu

Tyler Roche

Phd student Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A. Keywords: Prebiotic Chemistry, Origins of Life, Noncanonical Nucleosides, Prebiotic Sugars tyler.roche@gmail.com

Ben K. D. Pearce

1 Mar 202125 Mar 2021

PhD Student Origins Institute, McMaster University, Canada Keywords: Origin of Biomolecules, Early Earth Environments, Quantum Chemistry, Atmospheric Modelling, Thermodynamics. pearcbe@mcmaster.ca

Tim Lichtenberg

Postdoc University of Oxford, United Kingdom Keywords: planet formation, magma oceans, atmosphere origin, atmosphere composition, crust formation tim.lichtenberg@physics.ox.ac.uk

Josh Goldford

Postdoc MIT, USA Keywords: Metabolic networks, non-equilibrium thermodynamics goldford@mit.edu

Fatma Pir Cakmak

Postdoc MIT, USA Keywords: Protocells, membranes, condensates, biomolecules, evolution fatmapir@mit.edu

Milad Miladi

Postdoc University of Freiburg, Germany Keywords: RNA, ribozymes, Autocatalytic sets miladim@cs.uni-freiburg.de

Minoru Kurisu

Phd student Tohoku University, Japan Keywords: Membrane, Vesicle, Reproduction, Amphiphile, Autocatalysis kurisu@bio.phys.tohoku.ac.jp

Wataru Takahagi

27 Feb 202125 Mar 2021

Phd student The University of Tokyo, Japan Keywords: Prebiotic chemistry, protometabolism, metals availability, nonenzymatic reaction watarut@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Eduardo Rodríguez-Román

26 Feb 20211 Mar 2021

Postdoc Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Venezuela Keywords: Virus evolution, Virus ecology, Emerging and re-emerging viruses, Virus dynamics, Virus characterization erodriguezroman@gmail.com

Huan Cui

25 Feb 20211 Mar 2021

Postdoc IPGP, University of Paris, France Keywords: Shuram excursion, Precambrian, Neoproterozoic, SIMS, paleoenvironment geohcui@gmail.com

Artemy Kolchinsky

Postdoc Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe NM, USA Keywords: Information theory, stochastic thermodynamics, nonequilibrium statistical physics, artemyk@gmail.com

Yuliia Orlova

Postdoc University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Keywords: Reaction networks, metabolic networks, minimal properties of life. yuliiaorlova@gmail.com

Stuart Harrison

PhD student University College London, UK Keywords: Nucleotides, non-enzymatic, metabolism, biochemistry, genetic code. stuart.harrison.17@ucl.ac.uk

Cyrille Jeancolas

19 Jan 202119 Jan 2021

PhD student ESPCI Paris - PSL, France Keywords: Darwinian evolution, Ribozymes, Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies cyrille.jeancolas@espci.psl.eu

Marta Filipa Simões

Postdoc Macau University of Science and Technology, China Keywords: Mycology, filamentous fungi, biotechnology msimoes@must.edu.mo

Filipa Sousa

Professor (non-tenured) University of Vienna, Austria Keywords: Early bioenergetics evolution, cofactors, Metals, comparative genomics, electron transfer chains filipa.sousa@univie.ac.at

Ismael Acosta Servetto

Undergraduate Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Uruguay Keywords: Microfossils, Biosignatures, Exoplanets, Prebiotic Chemistry ismacosta96@gmail.com

Missy Thompson

Undergraduate Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, USA Keywords: Prebiotic chemistry, chirality, enantiomer excesses meathomp@ucsc.edu

Sandeep Ameta

12 Jan 202112 Jan 2021

Postdoc National Center For Biological Sciences, India Keywords: Chemical networks, NGS, microfluidics, autocatalytic networks ametasandeep@gmail.com

Alexandre Champagne-Ruel

12 Jan 202116 Jan 2021

PhD student University of Montreal, Canada Keywords: Emergence, phase transitions, evolution of cooperation, self-organized criticality, major evolutionary transitions alexandre.champagne-ruel@umontreal.ca

Michaela Dobson

PhD student The University of Auckland, New Zealand Keywords: Early Life, stromatolites, hot springs, pilbara mdob102@aucklanduni.ac.nz

Abril Hernandez Monroy

6 Jan 202116 Feb 2021

Masters Student National Autonomous University of Mexico Keywords: Microbial molecular ecology abrilh85@gmail.com

Han Jia

6 Jan 202125 Mar 2021

Phd student Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Keywords: Peptide, biosensing, conductive polymers jia.h.ab@m.titech.ac.jp

Soumitra Athavale

6 Jan 20217 Jan 2021

Postdoc California Institute of Technology, U.S.A. Keywords: Asymmetric Autocatalysis, Prebiotic synthesis, directed evolution, polymer evolution athavale@caltech.edu

Jihua Hao

6 Jan 202125 Mar 2021

Professor (un-tenured) University of Science and Technology of China, China Keywords: Water-rock interactions, photogeochemistry, early Earth surface environments, habitability of other planetary waters haojihua@gmail.com

Mazin Nasralla

PhD Student University of Leeds, UK Keywords: Water, ammonia, neutron diffraction pymna@leeds.ac.uk

Ryo Mizuuchi

22 Dec 202025 Mar 2021

Project Assistant Professor (un-tenured) Komaba Institute for Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan Keywords: RNA, replication, evolution, compartmentalization, networks mizuuchi@bio.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Byunghwa Kang

22 Dec 202025 Mar 2021

PhD Student Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea Keywords: In vitro evolution, ribozyme, molecular catalysts kangbw93@postech.ac.kr

Stewart Gault

22 Dec 202025 Mar 2021

PhD Student University of Edinburgh, UK Keywords: Enzymology s.a.gault@sms.ed.ac.uk

Amit Kahana

22 Dec 202025 Mar 2021

Masters Student The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Keywords: Micelles, lipid world, molecular dynamics, GARD amit.kahana@weizmann.ac.il

Jingbo Nan

22 Dec 202014 Jan 2021

PhD student Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Keywords: Abiotic organic synthesis in the oceanic lithosphere, biomarkers on early earth, Fe-based catalysts nanjb@idsse.ac.cn

Lena Vincent

PhD student University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Keywords: Agnostic biosignatures, prebiotic chemistry, systems chemistry lvincent3@wisc.edu

Delfina P. Henriques Pereira

PhD student Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany Keywords: Early metabolism, heterogeneous catalysis, abiotic reduction dph.pereira@campus.fct.unl.pt

Claudia Bonfio

12 Nov 202012 Nov 2020

Postdoc (MSCA Fellow) MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK Keywords: Prebiotic chemistry, protocells, systems chemistry bonfio@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk

Amanda Garcia

11 Nov 202017 Dec 2020

Postdoc University of Arizona, USA Keywords: Molecular paleobiology, nitrogen fixation, metalloenzyme, biogeochemistry, planetary coevolution akgarcia@email.arizona.edu

Sean F. Jordan

11 Nov 202012 Nov 2020

Postdoc University College London, UK Keywords: Protocells, prebiotic chemistry, biogeochemistry sean.jordan@ucl.ac.uk

Michael L. Wong

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

Postdoc University of Washington, USA Keywords: Planetary atmospheres, solar system, exoplanets miquai@uw.edu

Sreejith J. Varma

22 Oct 202017 Dec 2020

Postdoc Charite Universitatsmedizin, Germany Keywords: Non-enzyatic metabolic reactions, mass spectrommetry, organic chemistry, biochemistry srevar@gmail.com

Hanadi Rammu

22 Oct 202018 Jan 2021

PhD student University College London, UK Keywords: Protocells, [4Fe-4S] cluster synthesis, lipid chemistry hanadi.rammu.14@ucl.ac.uk

Martina Preiner

22 Oct 20202 Feb 2021

Postdoc Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany Keywords: Early metabolism, carbon fixation, heterogeneous catalysis, mineral surface chemistry, serpentinization preiner@hhu.de

Saroj Poudel

22 Oct 20202 Mar 2021

Postdoc Rutgers University, USA Keywords: Computational biology saroj.poudel@marine.rutgers.edu

Silvana Pinna

22 Oct 202011 Nov 2020

PhD student UCL, UK Keywords: ATP, acetyl phosphate, early metabolism, catalysis silvana.pinna@hotmail.com

Zhen Peng

22 Oct 202027 Dec 2020

Postdoc Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Keywords: Autocatalysis, reaction networks, chemical kinetics, ecology, evolution peng.zhen2002@yahoo.com

Sinje Neukirchen

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

PhD student Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Vienna, Austria Keywords: Biology, Computer Sciences sinje.neukirchen@univie.ac.at

Kamila B. Muchowska

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

Tenure Track Position University of Strasbourg & CNRS, France Keywords: Prebiotic chemistry, protometabolism, complex systems, biochemistry, catalysis muchowska@unistra.fr

Maël Montévil

22 Oct 202011 Dec 2020

Contractual researcher Université Paris 1, France Keywords: Theoretical biology, organization, historicity, epistemology of mathematics, Anthropocene mael.montevil@gmail.com

Omer Markovitch

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

Postdoc University of Groningen, The Netherlands Keywords: Self assembly ; Systems chemistry ; protocell ; Chemical evolution; Self replication omermar@gmail.com

John Malloy

22 Oct 202013 Nov 2020

PhD student Arizona State University, USA Keywords: Biochemical networks, metabolism, evolution jmalloy3@asu.edu

Yu Ernest Liu

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

Postdoc University of Glasgow, UK Keywords: Mathematical modelling, autocatalytic set, metabolic network, complexity, phylogenetics yu.ernest.liu@hotmail.com

Nozair Khawaja

22 Oct 202019 Nov 2020

Postdoc Freie University Berlin, Germany Keywords: Space missions, mass spectrometry, icy moons, comets and asteroids, cosmic dust nozair.khawaja@fu-berlin.de

Tony Z. Jia

22 Oct 202028 Jan 2021

Specially Appointed Assistant Professor (non-tenure track) Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan & Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Keywords: Prebiotic chemistry, chemical evolution, self-Assembly, protocells/artificial cells, polymer…

Rebecca Guth-Metzler

22 Oct 20203 Mar 2021

PhD student Georgia Tech, USA Keywords: RNA biochemistry, bioinorganic chemistry rguth3@gatech.edu

Natalie Grefenstette

22 Oct 202011 Nov 2020

Postdoc Santa Fe Institute, USA Keywords: Life Detection, Prebiotic Chemistry, Theoretical Astrobiology, Agnostic biosignatures natalie.grefenstette@santafe.edu

Evrim Fer

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

PhD student Department of Genetics, University of Arizona, USA Keywords: Evolution of translation evrimf@email.arizona.edu

Valentina Erastova

22 Oct 20202 Mar 2021

Tenure Track Position University of Edinburgh, UK Keywords: Molecular modelling, clays, minerals, adsorption valentina.erastova@ed.ac.uk

Andrey do Nascimento Vieira

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

PhD student Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany Keywords: Geobiology, microbiology, biochemistry nascima@uni-duesseldorf.de

Fernando D. K. Tria

22 Oct 202014 Dec 2020

Postdoc Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany Keywords: Molecular evolution, genomics, phylogenetics tria@hhu.de

Geoffrey Cooper

22 Oct 202014 Dec 2020

Postdoc University of Glasgow, UK Keywords: Automation, Cycles, Soups, Complexity, Messy Chemistry geoff.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk

Stephanie M. Colón-Santos

22 Oct 20206 Apr 2021

Postdoc University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA Keywords: Prebiotic Chemistry, Analysis and Automation colonsantos@wisc.edu

Enrico Sandro Colizzi

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

Postdoc Origins Center, Leiden University, Netherlands Keywords: Multilevel Evolution, Prebiotic Evolution, Origin of Life, Theoretical Biology istidina@gmail.com

Devon B. Cole

22 Oct 202017 Dec 2020

Postdoc Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Keywords: Sedimentology, oxygenation, biogeochemical cycles devon.cole@gatech.edu

Eloi Camprubi

22 Oct 20205 Nov 2020

Postdoc Origins Center, Utrecht University, Netherlands Keywords: Hydrothermalism, proto-metabolism, microfluidics, chemistry, catalysis e.camprubicasas@uu.nl

Stuart Bartlett

22 Oct 202014 Nov 2020

Postdoc California Institute of Technology, USA Keywords: Astrobiology, Origins of Life, Thermodynamics sjbart@caltech.edu

Job Opportunities

Postdoctoral Scholar- NASA Exobiology

https://apply.interfolio.com/78503 Opened September 17th 2020 Seattle, Washington

Cole Mathis

14 Oct 202011 Nov 2020

Postdoc researcher University of Glasgow, UK Keywords: Chemical Kinetics, Networks, life detection cole.mathis.ool@gmail.com

Silke Asche

13 Oct 20204 Nov 2020

PhD student University of Glasgow, UK Keywords: Automation; Recursive systems; Long term experiments; Minerals; Analytics info@silke-asche.de

Joana C. Xavier

10 Jul 20203 Mar 2021

Postdoc Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany Keywords: Prokaryotes, autocatalysis, metabolism, networks, middle-out, bioengineering xavier@hhu.de

Job Opportunities

PhD – RNA-catalyzed RNA replication

10 Jul 202014 Oct 2020

https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/students/international-phd-programme/projects/philipp-holliger/ Deadline 3rd December 2020