{"464781":{"#nid":"464781","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Center for Chemical Evolution Gets Big Boost","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EEarth wasn\u2019t always a blue-green beauty thriving with life, like it is today. Something happened 3.5 to 4 billion years ago that led to all of this, giving rise along the way to what might be our species\u2019 most fundamental question: How did life begin?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology has gotten increasingly warmer in its search for the answer. That\u2019s why both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have recently renewed funding for the CCE, granting the research center $20 million over the next five years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve made what we feel are significant advances,\u201d says Nick Hud, director of the CCE, associate director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. \u201cFortunately, the scientist that reviewed our progress over the past five years agreed, and recommended that NSF and NASA continue funding our center.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe CCE is an NSF Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI), one of nine around the country. These centers are focused on major, long-term fundamental chemical research challenges. The association with NASA makes the CCE, headquartered at the Petit Institute, the only CCI with another federal partner besides the NSF.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cNASA has historically been the agency that supports research into understanding how life started on Earth and where we might find it on other planets,\u201d says Hud, whose CCE team has been, \u201clooking at chemical processes that would lead to the spontaneous formation of polymers that could have evolved into the biopolymers we see in life today, like RNA.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ERNA, or ribonucleic acid, is one of the three major biological macromolecules essential for life (along with DNA and proteins). A common origins-of-life theory regards RNA as the first biological molecule. The CCE team has been exploring the idea that RNA evolved from something older, a biological precursor that evolved into RNA.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBasically, they are looking for a missing link between the prebiotic world and the biological world we live in \u2013 two worlds that could hardly be more different.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0022One of the CCE\u2019s next big goals is to demonstrate a rudimentary form of evolution \u2013 to find the conditions and processes under which these polymers evolved and developed the machinery needed to become living organisms,\u0022 Hud says. \u0022If we do that, it not only has implications of how life might have gotten started, but we believe it would open up a whole new area in polymer chemistry.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"NSF and NASA renew funding for origins-of-life research"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENSF and NASA renew funding for origins-of-life research\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"NSF and NASA renew funding for origins-of-life research"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-10-30 13:40:42","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:54","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-10-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-10-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"464741":{"id":"464741","type":"image","title":"Strand of DNA","body":null,"created":"1449256395","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:13:15","changed":"1475895211","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:31","alt":"Strand of DNA","file":{"fid":"203706","name":"bigstock-dna-molecule-is-located-in-fro-44407342.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bigstock-dna-molecule-is-located-in-fro-44407342_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bigstock-dna-molecule-is-located-in-fro-44407342_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5269565,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bigstock-dna-molecule-is-located-in-fro-44407342_0.jpg?itok=mFGYxOP-"}},"464751":{"id":"464751","type":"image","title":"Nick Hud","body":null,"created":"1449256395","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:13:15","changed":"1475895211","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:31","alt":"Nick Hud","file":{"fid":"203707","name":"nickh.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nickh_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nickh_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2127082,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/nickh_0.jpg?itok=oE58HYvn"}},"68624":{"id":"68624","type":"image","title":"RNA Strand","body":null,"created":"1449177185","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:05","changed":"1475894597","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:17","alt":"RNA Strand","file":{"fid":"192619","name":"rna_strand.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rna_strand_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rna_strand_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":43332,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/rna_strand_0.jpg?itok=ELmR_zuY"}}},"media_ids":["464741","464751","68624"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"5959","name":"Nick Hud"},{"id":"136661","name":"origins of life"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}