National Science Foundation Grant Awarded to the Santa Fe Institute to Study How Life Emerged on Earth.

SANTA FE, N.M. -- The Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) -- along with collaborating institutions George Mason University, University of Colorado, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State, and Carnegie Institution of Washington -- has been awarded a five-year Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) grant for their joint project, "The Emergence of Life: from Geochemistry to the Genetic Code."

SFI is the lead institution, with Harold Morowitz acting as principal investigator.

Morowitz heads the SFI Science Board and is Clarence Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University. SFI Research Professor D. Eric Smith also has a lead role on the grant.

This FIBR project will inject a broad array of novel theory and experimental data into the debate on the origin of life, involving an integrated approach that brings together microbiology, geochemistry, physics, biochemistry, computer simulation and a modern understanding of complex dynamical systems to provide, for the first time, a coherent account of the evolution of metabolism and the development of the modern genetic code. The project team will formulate and test an integrated theory of the early stages in the emergence of life from abiotic chemistry. The unifying premise of this theory is that robust core pathways and molecular associations were the statistically favored result of geochemical processes on the early Earth, which can be reconstructed computationally and in the laboratory.

During the last decade or so, the origins issue has become more pressing, with the exploration of space and of extreme or remote terrestrial environments on Earth. These spectacular endeavors have highlighted the need for a better understanding of the very definition of life and its detection from metabolic activity or other environmental effects, and have brought to the fore the notion that life may be more robust and widespread than previously recognized, at least on Earth, and potentially elsewhere too.

Stimulation of debate on the chemical origins of life based on data and theory developed in this project will have significant broader impact throughout biology and beyond, in areas such as geochemistry, chemical biology, evolutionary theory, and paleobiology. The project will involve interdisciplinary training of students and the outcome will be disseminated to a broad audience. At the end of the project, a symposium will be organized to summarize its outcome and provide an overview of modern biogenesis, and its broader implications for the prebiotic origins of life.

The National Science Foundation's Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) program supports integrative research that addresses major questions in the biological sciences. FIBR encourages investigators to identify major understudied or unanswered questions in biology and to use innovative approaches to address them by integrating the scientific concepts and research tools from across disciplines. For more information please go to http://www.nsf.gov.

Founded in 1984, the Santa Fe Institute is a private, independent theoretical research and education center focused on problems in the physical, biological, computational and social sciences that are complex in nature. SFI operates as a visiting institution to catalyze new collaborative, interdisciplinary research, to break down the barriers between traditional disciplines, to spread its ideas and methodologies to other institutions, and to encourage the practical application of its results. For more information about the Santa Fe Institute please see its Web site at www.santafe.edu.