THEME LEADS
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Molecular Complementary
ERIC ANSLYN | Co-Investigator
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
Eric V. Anslyn is a California-born American chemist, currently the holder of Welch Regents Chair as well as being a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, at University of Texas at Austin. In 2017 he was named a World Leading Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast. He has won the Izatt-Christensen Award for supramolecular chemistry, the Czarnik award for molecular sensing, and the Cope Scholar award from the ACS.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Eric's research group is interested in the physical and bioorganic chemistry of synthetic and natural receptors. They design and implement studies oriented at the development of receptors for numerous real-world applications. In specific, his group pioneered the use of differential sensing, where a series of cross-reactive receptors generate patterns indicative of the composition of complex mixtures. The technique has been applied to the analysis of kinases, wine, carbohydrates, and cell-surface features.
ANDREW ELLINGTON | Co-Investigator
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
Andrew Ellington is Professor of Molecular Biosciences in the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas, Austin. He received his BS in Biochemistry from Michigan State University in 1981, and his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard in 1988. His post-doctoral work was at Massachusetts General Hospital. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of Chemistry at Indiana University in 1992, andmoved to the University of Texas at Austin in 1998.
RESEARCH FOCUS
With the Ellington Lab, Andy engineers nucleic acids and proteins for biomedical and other applications. Nucleic acid biosensors (aptamers, ribozymes) and nucleic acid circuits (DNA computers) are being harnessed to diagnostic applications, especially for point-of-care diagnostics in resource-poor settings and for facile tumor detection. He develops analytical methods that apply to devices as simple as dipsticks and as complex as CMOS.
Molecular Complexity
LEE CRONIN | Co-Investigator
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Lee Cronin has been the Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow since 2013. He completed both a degree and PhD in Chemistry at University of York and post docs in Edinburgh and Germany before becoming a lecturer at the Universities of Birmingham, and then Glasgow since 2002. He has given over 300 international talks and has authored over 350 peer reviewed papers with recent work published in Nature, Science, and PNAS.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Lee's research is motivated by the fascination for complex chemical systems, and the desire to construct complex functional molecular architectures that are not based on biologically derived building blocks. It is trying to make artificial life forms, find alien life, explore the digitization of chemistry, understand how information can be encoded into chemicals and construct chemical computers.
Energy Disequilibrium
PETE GIRGUIS | Co-Investigator
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Peter R. Girguis is Professor of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Adjunct Research Engineer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. He received his B.Sc. from UCLA, and his Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Barbara, where he worked on the physiological and biochemical adaptation of deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworms and their microbial symbionts to the vent environment.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Pete studies the physiology and biochemistry of deep sea microorganisms, with an emphasis on carbon and nitrogen metabolism, to better understand their role in mediating local and global biogeochemical cycles. He also studies the physiological relationships between microbes and animals in natural systems. To that end, he applies traditional, modern, or new geochemical and molecular technologies to interrogate physiological and biochemical processes in natural systems or laboratory simulations.
Chemical Fractionation
CHRIS HOUSE | Co-Investigator
PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
Chris House is a Professor of Geosciences at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California in 1999. He is Director of the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center and of the NASA PA Space Grant Consortium.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Chris' research interests are geomicrobiology, microbial paleontology, molecular evolution and genomics, and astrobiology.
Computational Team
CHRIS KEMPES | Co-Investigator
SANTA FE INSTITUTE
Chris Kempes is a Resident Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. As a kid growing up in Abiquiu, New Mexico, Chris Kempes was captivated by stars and by ancient bones. As a college student studying physics and math, and later in his Ph.D. program in physical biology at MIT, those childhood interests deepened and eventually merged.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Using mathematical and computational techniques Chris studies how simple theoretical principles inform a variety of phenomena ranging from major evolutionary life-history transitions, to the biogeography of plant traits, to the organization of bacterial communities. He is particularly interested in biological architecture as a mediator between physiology and the local environment.
ERIC LIBBY | Co-Investigator
UMEÅ UNIVERSITY & SANTA FE INSTITUTE
Eric Libby is an Associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Umeå University and is based at the interdisciplinary research center Icelab. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Santa Fe Institute and at the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study. Before that he earned a Ph.D. in quantitative physiology from McGill University and a B.A. in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Eric's research focuses on the evolution of biological complexity– particularly the origins of multicellularity, life cycles, syntrophy, and organizational scales. Essentially, he is interested in how simple organisms evolve into complex ones. This topic is not only fascinating but it is fundamental to understanding the evolution and ecology of life– both on earth and elsewhere in the “verse”.
Space Flight Applications
PAUL MAHAFFY | Co-Investigator
NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Paul Mahaffy is the Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard. He has participated for many years at Goddard Space Flight Center in study of planetary atmospheres and development of space qualified instrumentation. He is a Principal Investigator in the SAM project, and has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Paul's main research interests are: (1) Planetary science, especially chemical and isotopic composition of planetary atmospheres and comets, (2) Advanced instrument development for organic and light isotope analysis in planetary targets, and (3) Analog studies for martian and cometary materials including both laboratory and field work.
Benchmarking Team
PAN CONRAD | Co-Investigator
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE
Pan Conrad is an astrobiologist and mineralogist at the Geophysical Laboratory of The Carnegie Institution of Science. She holds Master’s degrees in diverse fields (Geology, Music, theology) as well as a PhD in Geochemistry and Mineralogy from George Washington University. Pan was formerly at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA and subsequently at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Pan is scientific co-investigator to both the Mars Science Laboratory (SAM) and the Mars 2020 (SHERLOC/Watson and MEDA) missions. Her research interests focus on the evolution and decline of habitable planetary environments, as well as their characterization.
JAMIE ELSILA COOK | Co-Investigator
NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Jamie Elsila (Cook) is an astrochemist in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She is a member of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology and of the science team for the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2004 from Stanford and was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Ames Research Center before moving to NASA Goddard.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Jamie's research emphasis is on abiotic extraterrestrial organic chemistry, particularly the abundances, distributions, and stable isotopic signatures of extraterrestrial organic compounds, including amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites, lunar samples, and cometary material returned by the Stardust mission.
BARBARA SHERWOOD LOLLAR | Co-Investigator
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Companion of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a University Professor in Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto. She is a Canada Research Chair in Isotopes of the Earth and Environment, Past-President of the Geochemical Society and Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Sherwood Lollar is currently Director of the Earth, Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences Division of the Royal Society of Canada. She is 2018 Chair of the United States National Academy of Sciences Review for the Strategy for Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Barb has published extensively in research on stable isotope geochemistry and hydrogeology, the fate of carbon-bearing fluids and gases such as CO2, CH4 and H2 in ancient fracture waters in the Earth’s crust, and the role of deep subsurface microbial populations in carbon cycling. She has been a recipient of many academic awards (including the NGWA Darcy Lecturer, Canada Council Killam Fellowship and NSERC Accelerator, and Steacie Awards), the 2012 Eni Award for Protection of the Environment, 2012 Geological Society of America Geomicrobiology and Geobiology Prize, 2014 International Helmholtz Fellowship, 2016 NSERC John Polanyi Award, 2016 Bancroft Award for the Royal Society of Canada and 2018 Logan Medal of the Geological Association of Canada.
ANDREW STEELE | Co-Investigator
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE
Andrew Steele is a Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science. He received his B. Sc. in biochemistry and microbiology from the University of Central Lancashire and his Ph. D. from the Universtiy of Portsmouth. Before joining Carnegie he was a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Johnson Space Center and he was a researcher at Oxford University, a lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and an assistant professor at Montana State University.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Steelie uses traditional and biotechnological approaches for the detection of microbial life in astrobiology and solar system exploration. A microbiologist by training, his principle interest is in developing protocols, instrumentation, and procedures for life detection in samples from the early Earth and elsewhere in the Solar System. Steele has developed several instrument and mission concepts for future Mars missions, and has also been studying meteorites to determine the sources and processing of their carbon.