Ben Colville

Postdoctoral Researcher in the @SzostakLab
Former PhD Student in Origins of Life/Organic Chemistry at @UCLChemistry

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

Excited to share the 1st paper from my PhD, online now in @angew_chem! TNA nucleotides can form under the same conditions that give ribonucleotides. Our route selects for the correct threo-isomer using UV irradiation to remove the unwanted by-products: https://t.co/Q6f6gQTQLp

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

@FilipBoskovic12 @SzostakLab @KeyserLab @Baker_Lab_Cam @EMBO Many congrats Filip!

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

@SaurjaDasGupta @NDscience Massive congrats Saurja! Looking forward to seeing what you work on!

[J. Am. Chem. Soc. @J_A_C_S]

Selective Synthesis of Lysine Peptides and the Prebiotically Plausible Synthesis of Catalytically Active Diaminopropionic Acid Peptide Nitriles in Water @ucl #Lysine #Peptides #Prebiotic #DiaminopropionicAcid #Nitriles #Water #OriginofLife
https://t.co/NFpbtre2wb

[Matthew Powner @matt_powner]

Fully funded 4-year PhD available in our @matt_powner group & with @SheppardTomD @UCLChemistry

or please retweet

https://t.co/TKmGxtM1DH

https://t.co/5wMjWmFKCx

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

@alvarofmagalha @ChemCommun @matt_powner @UCLChemistry @EtnProtomet Really cool stuff! How essential is the Pro-COOH in the reactivity do you think, as observe reactivity with small peptides but not esters/amides/nitriles?! Also, really nice SI, clearly a lot of work gone into it congrats!

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

Phosphate buffer back at it again! Proline and phosphate combine to enable triose glycolysis. Elegant work from @alvarofmagalha and @matt_powner.

[Rafał Szabla @rafal_szabla]

Yay! Our most recent article (experiment+theory) about the photochemistry of a potentially prebiotic precursor to RNA nucleotides, 2-thiooxazole, has just been published in @PCCP !

https://t.co/Rd0P8sIibp

@matt_powner @SamRobe22992890 @LaurenBertram2 @ChemPWr @PWr_Wroclaw

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

How were proteinogenic peptides selectively assembled on the early earth? Exciting new work on Catalytic Peptide Ligation from @jyotisinghUCL, Daniel, @benj1_t @drsaidulislam et al. shows that even nucleophilic side chains like lysine’s can form α-peptides in neutral water!

[Matthew Powner @matt_powner]

Our latest paper on prebiotic peptide synthesis in water @J_A_C_S https://t.co/EVVt6GSOwy by @Jyotisi92156474 Daniel Whitaker @benj1_t @drsaidulislam @DrCallumFoden Abil Aliev @SheppardTomD @UCLChemistry @ucl

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

@drsaidulislam @ucl @UCLChemistry @matt_powner Good luck Lello!

[Dept. of Molecular Biology, MGH @MGHMolBio]

Latest from @SzostakLab: Freeze-thaw cycles enable a prebiotically plausible and continuous pathway from nucleotide activation to nonenzymat… https://t.co/seWvPH38Uo @HarvardCCB @PNASNews

[Sam Roberts @SamRobe22992890]

It has been a bit of long stretch since my last paper, but now here is our latest work currently ASAP in JACS. https://t.co/oiBf7x0Emx An alternative method of prebiotic aminoacylation via phosphoramidate chemistry.

[Saurja DasGupta @SaurjaDasGupta]

We created Frankenstein ribozymes with amino acids in their backbones at the ⁦@SzostakLab⁩. Shoutout to the daring ⁦@theserbianator⁩ for bringing together amino acids and ribonucleotides to keep hopes alive for a peptide-RNA World. https://t.co/Xz1Jn1dOMg

[James Attwater @DrJamesAttwater]

Interested in mixing prebiotic chemistry and molecular biology? One week left to apply for a PhD studentship with @matt_powner and I. Find out more @UCLChemistry open day on Wednesday: https://t.co/944AXdNBEl

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

A great opportunity to work on the Origins of Life in London! @drsaidulislam is a phenomenal mentor who does exciting and rigorous science. Please RT!

[Saidul Islam @drsaidulislam]

I have a new chemistry PhD position starting in Oct. 2022. This is a great opportunity to work on the origins of life at @KingsCollegeLon. Please RT and share- it would be a big help to me! @KingsNMES ⁦@FindAPhD⁩ #chemtwitter ⁦@kclchemistry⁩ https://t.co/Orm2N259R9

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

@neuro_chlo @barrygboland @uniofbrighton @PhD_Brighton 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[Claudia @ClaudiaBonfio]

Are you curious about how primitive cells self-assembled and became functional on early Earth? If so, we have an opening for a PhD student, with a MSc in Chemistry, Biochemistry or Bioengineering! Come join us at ISIS @unistra! https://t.co/IrL50kA34u #PhDposition @FindAPhD

[Blavatnik Awards @BlavatnikAwards]

Congratulations to 2021 @Blavatnikawards 🇬🇧 Finalist 🏅 in Chemistry, from @UCL, Professor Matthew Powner @matt_powner @uclmaps @UCLChemistry @uclnews #Blavatnik2021 https://t.co/Aedb36tUyf #originsoflife Chemistry ⚗

[Ben Colville @colvilleben]

@theserbianator 🦆

[bioRxiv @biorxivpreprint]

Freeze-thaw Cycles Enable a Prebiotically Plausible and Continuous Pathway from Nucleotide Activation to Nonenzymatic RNA Copying https://t.co/4MZiDNtDiS #bioRxiv

[Rafał Szabla @rafal_szabla]

Exciting news today! Our paper on the photodynamics of thiocytidine in @JPhysChem Lett was published online today. Good mixture of pump-probe spectroscopy by Sasselov lab, synthesis by @SzostakLab and #compchem done by @mj_janicki @rwgora and me. https://t.co/U8yRyPgo63
😊