All Molecules Great and Small: Life at the Molecular Level

How did life begin? Before DNA, proteins or cells as we know them, the ingredients of life were just simple molecules. In this talk, I’ll explore how these building blocks (nucleic acids, peptides and lipids) could come together to form the first primitive cells. We’ll journey from chaotic chemistry to organised structures, focusing on how membranes gave shape, function and identity to early life, turning molecules into the first living systems.

Our metabolism is constantly changing and responding to challenges of our environment, lifestyle and our food. Using modern analytical methods, such as high-resolution mass spectrometry, we can measure a great many different metabolites in blood samples. Some tell about our past, some about our current health and some are associated with disease risk in the future. All together these are our fortune telling molecules. I will explain how metabolites can be measured and used, how we know why these molecules can be used to tell something about us.