- Wed Jul 16 (room reservation 16:00 JST [=UTC+09:00]), ELSI-1 105 Mishima Hall [Seminar] ELSI Seminar - Wancheng Zhang & Felipe Garibello Wancheng Zhang Postdoc in Matsuura Lab (residing in the UK so speaker will join online) Title: Insights into Gel-in-Giant Unilamellar Vesicle System as Artificial Cell Model Abstract: Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) have been widely utilized as models for artificial cells. However, GUVs exhibit obvious limitations for their compositional simplicity and low stability under complex conditions to mimic natural cells. In this study, we present a gel-in-GUV system (GiG), in which a polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel is encapsulated by GUVs as artificial inner cellular environment and covalently linked to the membrane to mimic the binding of membrane proteins with cytoskeleton in real cells. We evaluated the feasibility of utilizing the GiG system as an artificial cell model in the perspective of stability. It exhibits enhanced time-dependent stability and resistance against detergents and mechanical stress, while maintaining benign but reduced ability to incorporate membrane proteins. These phenomena offer valuable insights for the design of more robust and complex artificial cell models. 2nd Talk Felipe Garibello Postdoc in McGlynn Lab Title: The Role of H₂ and H₂S Reduction Potentials in Hydrothermal Vent Environments for the Emergence of life Abstract: Understanding the chemical processes that facilitated the origin of life on Earth remains a central challenge in prebiotic chemistry. Hydrothermal vent environments, characterized by abundant hydrogen (H₂) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), offer a plausible pathway setting for the emergence of early metabolic pathways. Hydrogen, produced through serpentinization at these vents, is thought to have driven the reduction of carbon dioxide, yielding fundamental biomolecules—a process still mirrored by certain modern vent-dwelling microbes. Concurrently, the chemical versatility and prebiotic abundance of H₂S suggest its significant contribution as an energy source in primordial metabolism, with recent evidence indicating a more prominent role in life's emergence. To elucidate the contributions of these reductants, we investigate the reduction potentials of H₂ and H₂S within a microfluidic hydrothermal vent simulation, employing fresh mackinawite and green rust as catalytic mineral phases. This study aims to clarify how geochemical gradients and mineral-mediated redox processes at hydrothermal vents could have driven the synthesis of life's building blocks, offering new insights into the environmental and metabolic conditions that shaped the earliest stages of life on Earth. - Fri Jul 18 (room reservation 14:00 JST [=UTC+09:00]), ELSI-1 207 Seminar Room B [Study Group] Metabolism Hour [Reading Group] Weekly meeting where we discuss... you guessed it: metabolism. Hosted by Longo lab, open to anyone interested in metabolism.