The origin of life

Delft Outlook, July 2010

His room in the Applied Sciences faculty building is freshly painted and virtually empty. He formulates his words carefully in English with a slight French accent. Following previous appointments at the universities of Toulouse and Lausanne, Dr Christophe Danelon (33) has now arrived in Delft.

Click image for .pdf download

Danelon considers it exciting to be part of a new department at a university with such a high reputation in physics and biological molecules, and which also has considerable expertise in microscopy and spectroscopy. He sees Delft as the ideal setting for his next great project: unravelling the origin of life itself.

Most of his publications in recent years have been about ion channels. “They are poreforming proteins on the membranes of living cells,” he explains. “They are of major importance in regulating the ion flows, in admitting nutrients and getting rid of waste products.” With his arrival in Delft, Danelon’s research will take ‘a slight change of direction’. Here, he will go in search of the origin of life itself. “It’s good to set the ambitions high and ask the big questions,” he says. “Even minor progress in this area will be a major achievement,” he adds modestly. Within five years, Danelon hopes to present his first artificial cell, one which uses nutrients to meet its energy demand, can recreate and is able to evolve. The most important question for Danelon is how a set of complex biochemical molecules can remain close enough to each other to replicate. When surrounded by water, the molecules quickly drift apart. Perhaps certain minerals play a part in connecting them, or perhaps a second membrane to hold the cells together is required. Hopefully, five years of research will increase his knowledge in this regard. The underlying question, the molecular origin of life itself, is big enough to keep him busy for the rest of his life, Danelon believes. Alongside this fundamental research, Danelon is also working on the use of liposomes (lipid vesicles) in medication. Drugs which have a coating of liposomes can move unnoticed through the body. By introducing an antibody, it would be possible to have these medicine pellets attach themselves to specific tissue. There would then have to be some mechanism to release the contents of the pellet. This offers a promising way of getting drugs into the brain via the bloodstream.