Compartment formation and self-reproduction in dynamic combinatorial libraries

All living organisms have been going through some four billion years of evolution. What preceded this everlasting process was the formation of the first life forms from non living matter. How the first life forms could have assembled from simple molecules is still poorly understood. We study complex mixtures of interacting and interconverting molecules that possess fundamental properties of living systems to better understand this process. This thesis focuses on implementing the main aspects of life, such as the ability to reproduce and to form a membrane that separates the interior from the environment, into fully synthetic systems. Molecules that can self replicate have previously been studied in our group. Now, a new class of (amphiphilic) molecules has been described that can self assemble into structures capable of not only self reproduction, but also of the formation of the compartments, depending on experimental conditions. These are some of the prerequisites for obtaining chemical life forms that would undoubtedly shed some light on the process of the origin of life.