Visit from Tym Sokolskyi

Today, we had the pleasure of hosting Tym Sokolskyi from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tym is part of David Baum's group, which conducts exciting research on artificial life, origins of life, and protocells. More information about Tym's work can be found on his website.

Tym gave a lecture titled "Evolutionary dynamics of prebiotic chemical systems." He discussed how life is defined as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of adaptive evolution, which is fundamental to the origins of life. He explored whether non-biological chemistries could evolve, using experimental frameworks to search for heritability and evolvability in systems composed of short-chain amphiphiles and small molecules. His results suggest that vesicles and certain chemical compositions show signs of heritability and potential for selection.

During his visit, Tym toured our labs and we had the opportunity to showcase our work. Nina demonstrated her project on myelin figures, and we discussed potential collaboration opportunities.

Thank you, Tym, for visiting us. We hope you enjoyed your time in Prague and at UCT Prague.