Biosketch

I am a fellow of the Origins Center and my project is on the boundary between chemistry and biology. Self-replicating systems are likely to have played a central role in the origin of life. The goal of my project is to learn principles related to the emergent behaviour we call b lifeb , from different classes of self-replicating systems including synthetic chemical replicators, RNA viruses and bacteria. This will be achieved by investigating the diversification and adaptive potential of each system and by identifying common evolutionary principles and differences between them.

Highlights

1. Popular science YouTube video
2. An interview with me
3. Gregory B. Boursalian, Eise R. Nijboer, Ruth Dorel, Lukas Pfeifer, Omer Markovitch, Alex Blokhuis, and Ben L. Feringa: All-photochemical rotation of molecular motors with a phosphorus stereoelement. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 16868 (2020), doi 10.1021/jacs.0c08249
4. Omer Markovitch, Boris H. Kramer, Franz J. Weissing, G. Sander van Doorn and Sijbren Otto: Competition dynamics in a chemical system of self-replicating macrocycles. Artificial Life Conference Proceedings 2020 NO. 32, 462 (2020), link
5. Rafael Loureiro, Omer Markovitch, Crystal S Riley, H James Cleaves, II, I Haritina Mogoșanu, Ivan G Paulino-Lima, Jeffrey J Marlow and Sanjoy M Som: Perspective: Science policy through public engagement. Science and Public Policy 47, 890 (2020), doi 10.1093/scipol/scaa039