The Future of Prebiotic Chemistry

Here is a puzzle: in what area of organic synthesis research are synthetic organic chemists a minority? According to Albert Eschenmoser, it is in the field of prebiotic chemistry: the study of the reactions and molecules that led to the emergence of life on earth. Biologists, mathematicians, and astronomers have traditionally weighed in on this problem proportionally more than organic chemists. When chemists do play in this field, they are venerableAlbert Eschenmoser, Leslie Orgel, Jack Szostak, and Ronald Breslow, to name a fewbut only rarely has the field been the province of early career organic chemists. It may be that the challenge of finding funding for such an esoteric problem comes easier to established scientists in a world increasingly focused on practical applications. But a desire to explore this field also speaks to the uniquely reflective mindset required to contemplate the greatest retrosynthetic analysis of all, leading us from modern enzymes and genetic polymers back to the etiology of biomolecules. A glimpse into this kind of thinking is provided in a recent Nature Chemistry paper by Adam J. Coggins and Matthew W. Powner, along with a 2015 Nature Chemistry paper by John D. Sutherland and co-workers.