January 20, 2015 - Peter Unrau
The Origin of Life: The World Before DNA


Graduating from MIT in 1996 with a doctorate in theoretical physics, Peter Unrau began his work on the origin of life through several years of study in David Bartel's laboratory in Boston. His research primarily involves the search for RNA sequences that would be among the precursors to life in the DNA world. He has worked at Simon Fraser University since 2001 and is a senior scholar of the Michael Smith Foundation.

Links

A delightful TEDx talk in which Peter explains self-replicating RNA using metaphors from the machine age can be viewed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eZ58e20xOA

The RNA World hypothesis is described in Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world_hypothesis

Details of Peter's work can be found at http://www.sfu.ca/~punrau