Origins of Life Initiative
Origins of Life Graduate Consortium
A secondary certificate program for Ph.D. students
Start exploring Origins of Life in labs and classes for undergraduates
Origins laboratory research awards are available for academic and summer terms
Harvard research explores ‘RNA world’
Cuvettes sit in the middle of a Rayonet reactor under a mercury emission lamp.
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Welcome to the Origins of Life Initiative, a biochemical journey through the Universe.
The Origins of Life Initiative supports multi-disciplinary research aimed at revealing if life is abundant in the Universe. We seek to understand how the initial conditions on planets, including our own Earth and planets around other stars, dictated the origins of life and its subsequent evolution. Using this knowledge, it will eventually be possible to study the atmospheres of far distant planets for signs of life, including planets that might be Earth twins.
Latest News
Origins Visiting Scholar John Sutherland will receive the 2025 NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Studies – Stanley Miller Medal
"John D. Sutherland, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, will receive the 2025 NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Studies – Stanley Miller Medal. John's pioneering work on prebiotic chemical pathways and geochemical scenarios provides fresh insight into...
Exciting News: Nobel Prize Awarded to Origins Faculty member Gary Ruvkun
Dear Origins Community, We are thrilled to share that Origins Faculty member, Gary Ruvkun, receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for Discovery of microRNA. Gary shares this award with Victor Ambros (UMass Medical) for elucidating a...
Upcoming Events
Professor Gary Ruvkun (Harvard) "The Hallmarks of the Last Universal Common Ancestor and where to look for it today"
Apr. 22 - Apr 27, 2026
4:00PM - 5:30PM EDT
Haller Hall - 24 Oxford Street
Abstract Ever since the universality of DNA and the genetic code were discovered between 1953 and 1965, molecular biologists and chemists have explored the steps required to evolve life as know it from simple chemistry. As the first genome sequences from...
Xavier Portillo (Kavli-Laukien Fellow)
May 7, 2026
9:00AM - 10:15AM EDT
Northwest Building - Room 353
Dr. Michael Vanden Berg (Utah Geological Survey)
May 13, 2026
4:00PM - 5:30PM EDT
Haller Hall - 24 Oxford Street