The ubiquity of amino acids, peptides, and proteins across life on Earth suggests they appeared early in evolution—perhaps in the very first living system(s). While peptides have been a major focus of origins-of-life research, this work usually requires instrumentation that makes it inaccessible to prospective scientists outside of a university setting. This poster will present our recent work on (i) improving chemical shift dispersion in low-field (benchtop) NMR spectrometers such that they can be used to measure rates of peptide reactions and (ii) developing a kit to enable the characterization of peptide oligomerization reactions using equipment commonly available in high school laboratories. Our hope is that these tools will enable distributed research projects on peptides and the origin of life to be performed by a wide array of interested citizen scientists, educators, and students with access to home laboratories, local makerspaces, and/or labs in high schools and community colleges.

Tools for citizen scientists interested in studying peptides and the origin of life

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

[Author Benefits](https://scimeetings.acs.org/?utm_source=pubs_content_marketing&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=0320_MCF_NPI_Launch_Spring_Homepage&ref=pubs_content_marketing)

[How to use SciMeetings](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMeetings-ACSSpring2020-HowToGuide_M3020-Final.pdf)

[Frequently Asked Questions](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMtng_ACSNMSp2020_FAQ_M3120_Final.pdf)

ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.