Vall d'Hebron Talks by VHIR 'In vitro evolution of nucleic acids: from the origin of life to its biomedical applications'

Speaker; Dr. Carlos Briones, Laboratory of Molecular Evolution- Center for Astrobiology (CSIC-INTA, Associated with the NASA Astrobiology Program)

One of the main scientific questions is how life began on Earth... or perhaps on any other planet or satellite. The first scientific reflections on this subject were due to Charles R. Darwin, though the pioneering work in the field was the essay The Origin of Life, published by the Russian biochemist Alexandr I. Oparin in 1924. Since then, numerous theoretical and experimental advances have been made on the origin of life, showing how the basic monomers and biopolymers could have been synthesized under prebiotic conditions. Among the latter, ribonucleic acid (RNA) is particularly relevant, since in the origin of life it was able to function as genotype (molecule with heritable genetic information) and phenotype (thanks to its structural plasticity and functional versatility). During the last decades, experiments of in vitro evolution of RNA (and also of single-stranded DNA) are being carried out to obtain nucleic acids with specific binding capacity to any molecule of interest (called aptamers) or with catalytic activities (ribozymes). Aptamers are especially relevant in biotechnology and biomedicine, with applications in diagnostics and therapeutics. In particular, we are using them as molecular probes in nanobiosensors that allow the ultrasensitive detection of pathogenic viruses. All of these topics will be discussed in this talk.

Host: Dr. Josep Quer,  Main researcher-Liver Diseases (VHIR)

Register here to attend by Zoom: https://gencat.zoom.us/j/82583647893