LMU Munich Researchers Investigate Origin of Life
Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München are using chemical analysis to reconstruct the conditions and processes that led to the emergence of life on Earth approximately four billion years ago.
Scientists Thomas Carell, Oliver Trapp, and Dieter Braun at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) are working to understand the early stages of life's evolution. Their research focuses on the chemical reactions and environments that likely gave rise to the precursors of life on Earth around four billion years ago.
The work integrates disciplines such as chemistry and physics to build a plausible model of early Earth conditions and the chemical processes that could have occurred. The goal is to understand how simple molecules could have evolved into complex, information-carrying units capable of replication—the fundamental building blocks of life.
LMU Munich has established itself as an internationally recognized center for origin of life research. The effort is supported by several projects, including a collaborative research center and the "ORIGINS" Cluster of Excellence, funded by the DFG, as well as grants from the European Research Council.
Researchers combine the design of model reactions with experimental verification. Their methods involve a back-and-forth between hypothesizing about early Earth conditions and rigorous laboratory testing, aiming to construct a comprehensive, experimentally supported description of life's emergence.