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Mcglynn Lab
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A lab that explores how life came about through the flow of energy.
AboutAbout the lab
Energy flow creates order in matter.
The Mcglynn Lab studies how the organization of matter proceeds through the flow of energy.
It examines both processes involving living organisms and processes without them, across multiple systems and scales.
Its settings include the ways of life of microbes in hot springs, experiments imitating hydrothermal vents, and research tracing the evolutionary history of enzymes.
Affiliated with the Earth-Life Science Institute, the lab approaches from chemistry the nature of the energy that triggered the emergence of life.
Key terms
- Hydrothermal vent
- A place where hot water wells up from the seafloor. Thought to have existed in the earliest oceans as well.
- Metagenomic analysis
- A method of reading the DNA of microbes in an environment all together to determine which microbes are present.
- Thioester
- A type of sulfur-containing compound. It may have existed as an energy-storing molecule before ATP.
NewsLab news
Published in PNAS on the possibility that the primordial atmosphere produced sulfur compounds that served as raw materials for life
Unraveling an ancient microbial ecosystem from iron-rich hot springs in Japan
Demonstrating osmotic energy conversion in precipitates from deep-sea hydrothermal vents
Discovering by calculation a primitive route to ATP synthesis that does not depend on ATP
ResearchResearch themes
The lab asks what kind of energy flow produced the organization of the polymers that led to life. It also learns about the relationship between energy and the replication, ecology, and evolution of organisms from present-day environments that have diverse energy sources and microbes.
*Illustrative imageMicrobes living in hot springs
Hot springs with diverse geochemical properties are well suited for exploring how microbes and chemistry combine. The lab studies lithotrophic microbes living in iron-bearing carbonate hot springs using metagenomic analysis and stable isotope probing.
*Illustrative imageThioesters and energy
The lab asks what kinds of molecules could store energy before the first cells existed. Combining aqueous organic chemistry, electrochemistry, and simulated hydrothermal vent experiments, it investigates through what processes thioesters form.
*Illustrative imageEnzyme evolution and isotopes
The lab investigates how protein catalysis evolved. It is developing a method that links the evolution of molecular sequences with isotopic biases preserved in ancient sediments, in order to read the span of time over which evolution proceeded.
*Illustrative imageRecreating hydrothermal vents
The lab recreates in the laboratory what minerals formed in Hadean hydrothermal vents and whether they acted as catalysts. From experiments mimicking the flow in vents, it found a new process that converts dinitrogen into ammonium.
MembersFaculty
The Mcglynn Lab consists of faculty members, doctoral and master's students, researchers, technical staff, and secretaries.
- Associate ProfessorShawn McglynnPublications ↗
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Stromatolites in Sharkbay” Paul Harrison / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Microbes living in hot springs: “Microbial mat - asessions” Alicejmichel / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Thioesters and energy: “Equipment and glassware” Belikov Maxim / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Enzyme evolution and isotopes: “Banded iron formation Dales Gorge” Graeme Churchard from Bristol, UK / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Recreating hydrothermal vents: “Active hydrothermal vent- Mushroom (OOI 222)” Ocean Observatories Initiative / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (田中
(寛)・吉田研究室): “Leaf epithelium, guard cells, stomatal pore and peripheral chloroplasts” Emilio Ermini / CC BY 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (増田研究室): “Cyanobacteria guerrero negro” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (二階堂研究室): “Curious young cichlids” Cethuyghe / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (湯浅研究室): “Dispersion of White Light Through a Prism” Aligatorigiganti / CC0 (cropped)
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