Zan Peeters
	Gorlaeus Laboratory, Einsteinweg 55, 2300RA, Leiden, the Netherlands lab 3.61 - phone +31 (0)71 527 4446, office 3.32 - phone +31 (0)71 527 4541 e-mail: peeters@strw.leidenuniv.nl
	st.-Willibrord Gymnasium, Deurne (1996) Master degree in Chemistry, Major Biochemistry, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (2002)
	Organic (prebiotic) chemistry in space

In the 1950's, Urey and Miller showed that a group of building blocks which are used by all living organisms, the amino acids, could be made from simple molecules by abiological processes. Their findings provided a big boost for the research into how life emerged on earth. However, Urey and Miller assumed a mixture of atmospheric gasses which was later found to be very unlikely to have ever existed on earth. This would mean that Urey-Miller synthesis could not have taken place, at least not in the earth's atmosphere. Then how did the first building blocks (and life itself) come to this planet?

Astrobiology is the modern research into the ancient questions of how life came to be on the earth and whether there is life elsewhere in the universe. The present day view on the above question of the amino acids is twofold. On the one hand scientists believe that amino acids and other building blocks were made in space and delivered to the earth by means of impact of comets, meteorites and dust. A second contribution to the pool of precursors was made by the so called hydrothermal vents, hot water geysers on the ocean floor, which harbour a wealth of interesting chemical reactions. Probably both paths have contributed to the pool of prebiotic compounds, often referred to as primordial soup.

My research in the Astroiology Group of the Leiden University involves the detection, formation, survival and distribution of organic (prebiotic) molecules in space. My first research, which I started as an undergraduate student, showed that

1. nucleobases are unlike to form in space and
2. that they will be degraded quickly by the present UV radiation.

Nucleobases are another type of building blocks of living organisms, just like amino acids. The results were reported in an article (see publications).