The Center for Chemical Evolution brings together a diverse group of scientists with backgrounds from several disciplines of chemistry and chemical engineering. Our continued research efforts focus on exploring chemical evolution and the chemistry associated with the origins of life.  We anticipate that discoveries made within the Center will significantly contribute to this field, as well as to the greater scientific community. Our recent peer-reviewed publications are listed below.  

Ni, R., Childers, W. S., Hardcastle, K. I., Mehta, A. K., and Lynn, D. G. (2012) Remodeling Cross-β Nanotube Surfaces with Peptide/Lipid Chimeras, Angewandte Chemie, 51, 6635-6638.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201201173

Krishnamurthy, R. (2012) Role of pKa of Nucleobases in the Origins of Chemical Evolution, Acc. Chem. Res., ASAP
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ar200262x

Lannan, F., Mamajanov, I., and Hud, N.V. (2012) Human Telomere Sequence DNA in Water-Free and High-Viscosity Solvents: G-quadraplex Folding Governed by Kramers Rate Theory, J. Am. Chem. Soc., ASAP
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja303499m

Childers, W. S., Anthony, N. R., Mehta, A. K., Berland, K. M., Lynn, D. L. (2012) Phase Networks of Cross-β Peptide Assemblies, Langmuir 28, 6386-6395.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/10.1021/la300143j

Engelhart, A.E., Cafferty, B.J., Okafor, C.D., Chen, M.C., Williams, L.D., Lynn, D.G., Hud, N.V. (2012) Nonenzymatic ligation of DNA with a reversible step and a final linkage that can be used in PCR, ChemBioChem 13, 1121-1124.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201200167

Walker, S.I.,Grover, M.A., Hud, N.V. (2012) "Universal Sequence Replication, Reversible Polymerization and Early Functional Biopolymers: A Model for the Initiation of Prebiotic Sequence Evolution", PLoS ONE 7, e34166.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/pone.0034166

Hudson, J. S., Eberle, J. F., Vachhani, R. H., Rogers, L. C., Wade, J. H., Krishnamurthy, R., and Springsteen, G. (2012) A unified mechanism for abiotic adenine and purine synthesis in formamide, Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 51, 5134-5137.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201108907

Sagi, V. N., Punna, V., Hu, F., Meher, G., and Krishnamurthy, R. (2012) Exploratory experiments on the chemistry of the "glyoxylate scenario": formation of ketosugars from dihydroxyfumarate, J Am Chem Soc. 134, 3577.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja211383c

Li, X. Y., Hernandez, A. F., Grover, M. A., Hud, N. V., and Lynn, D. G. (2011) Step-Growth Control in Template-Directed Polymerization, Heterocycles 82, 1477.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3987/COM-10-S(E)99

Meher, G., and Krishnamurthy, R. (2011) An expedient synthesis of L-ribulose and derivatives, Carbohyd Res 346, 703-707.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carres.2011.01.013

Parker, E. T., Cleaves, H. J., Dworkin, J. P., Glavin, D. P., Callahan, M., Aubrey, A., Lazcano, A., and Bada, J. L. (2011) Primordial synthesis of amines and amino acids in a 1958 Miller H2S-rich spark discharge experiment, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108, 5526-5531.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1019191108

Parker, E. T., Cleaves, H. J., Callahan, M. P., Dworkin, J. P., Glavin, D. P., Lazcano, A., and Bada, J. L. (2011) Prebiotic synthesis of methionine and other sulfur-containing organic compounds on the primitive Earth: a contemporary reassessment based on an unpublished 1958 Stanley Miller experiment, Orig Life Evol Biosph 41, 201-212.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11084-010-9228-8

Anumukonda, L. N., Young, A., Lynn, D. G., Buckley, R., Warrayat, A., Graves, C. L., Bean, H. D., and Hud, N. V. (2011) Adenine Synthesis in a Model Prebiotic Reaction: Connecting Origin of Life Chemistry with Biology, J Chem Educ 88, 1698-1701.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed1012074

Nguyen, V. S., Abbott, H. L., Dawley, M. M., Orlando, T. M., Leszczynski, J., and Nguyen, M. T. (2011) Theoretical study of formamide decomposition pathways, J Phys Chem A 115, 841-851.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp109143j

Michalkova, A., Robinson, T. L., and Leszczynski, J. (2011) Adsorption of thymine and uracil on 1 : 1 clay mineral surfaces: comprehensive ab initio study on influence of sodium cation and water, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 13, 7862-7881.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c1cp00008j

Michalkova, A., Kholod, Y., Kosenkov, D., Gorb, L., Leszczynski, L., (2011) "Origin of Life: Viability of Pyrite Pulled Metabolism in the "Iron-Sulfur World" Theory. Quantum Chemical Assessment" Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 75(7), 1933-1941.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2011.01.015

Liang, Y., Lynn, D. G., and Berland, K. M. (2010) Direct observation of nucleation and growth in amyloid self-assembly, J Am Chem Soc 132, 6306-6308.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja910964c

Childers, W. S., Mehta, A. K., Ni, R., Taylor, J. V., and Lynn, D. G. (2010) Peptides organized as bilayer membranes, Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 49, 4104-4107.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201000212

Barks, H. L., Buckley, R. E., Grieves, G. A., DiMauro, E., Hud, N. V., and Orlando, T. M. (2010) Guanine, adenine and hypoxanthine production in UV-irradiated formamide solutions: Relaxation of the requirements for prebiotic purine nucleobase formation, ChemBioChem 11, 1240-1243.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201000074

Horowitz, E. D., Engelhart, A. E., Chen, M. C., Quarles, K. A., Smith, M. W., Lynn, D. G., and Hud, N. V. (2010) Intercalation as a means to suppress cyclization and promote polymerization of base-pairing oligonucleotides in a prebiotic world, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107, 5288-5293.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914172107

Mamajanov, I., Engelhart, A., Bean, H., and Hud, N. (2010) DNA and RNA in Anhydrous Media: Duplex, Triplex, and G-Quadruplex Secondary Structures in a Deep Eutectic Solvent, Angew Chem Int Edit 49, 6310-6314.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201001561

Liang, Y., Lynn, D. G., and Berland, K. M. (2010) Direct Observation of Nucleation and Growth in Amyloid Self-Assembly, J Am Chem Soc 132, 6306.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja910964c

Sheng, Y., Bean, H. D., Mamajanova, I., Hud, N. V., and Leszczynski, J. (2009) A comprehensive investigation of the energetics of pyrimidine nucleoside formation in a model prebiotic reaction, J Am Chem Soc 131, 16088-16095.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja900807m

Childers, W. S., Ni, R., Mehta, A. K., and Lynn, D. G. (2009) Peptide membranes in chemical evolution, Curr Opin Chem Biol 13, 652-659.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2009.09.027

Childers, W. S., Mehta, A. K., Lu, K., and Lynn, D. G. (2009) Templating molecular arrays in amyloid's cross-beta grooves, J Am Chem Soc 131, 10165-10172.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja902332s

Liu, P., Ni, R., Mehta, A. K., Childers, W. S., Lakdawala, A., Pingali, S. V., Thiyagarajan, P., and Lynn, D. G. (2008) Nucleobase-directed amyloid nanotube assembly, J Am Chem Soc 130, 16867-16869.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja807425h

Liang, Y., Guo, P., Pingali, S. V., Pabit, S., Thiyagarajan, P., Berland, K. M., and Lynn, D. G. (2008) Light harvesting antenna on an amyloid scaffold, Chem Commun 6522-6524.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/B814262A

Liang, Y., Pingali, S. V., Jogalekar, A. S., Snyder, J. P., Thiyagarajan, P., and Lynn, D. G. (2008) Cross-strand pairing and amyloid assembly, Biochemistry-Us 47, 10018-10026.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi801081c

Mehta, A. K., Lu, K., Childers, W. S., Liang, Y., Dublin, S. N., Dong, J., Snyder, J. P., Pingali, S. V., Thiyagarajan, P., and Lynn, D. G. (2008) Facial symmetry in protein self-assembly, J Am Chem Soc 130, 9829-9835.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja801511n