{"type":"journal_article","acknowledgement":"This work is a collaborative effort of the titled authors as part of the Origin of Life Early Career Network (OoLEN). We chose to add OoLEN as the first author to give a better representation of this team effort, rather than listing any single author as the first author. We hope such a thing can be adopted by others. We indicate that authors 2–9 (S.A., C.B., C. Blanco, D.B., A.C.-R., C.M., O.M., Z.P., and A.V.D.) have made a more distinct contribution. All authors are listed alphabetically by their last names. We would like to acknowledge all current and past members of OoLEN for their contributions to our community. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Evrim Fer, who helped with molecular phylogenetics. We would like to thank the anonymous referees for reviewing Parts 1 and 2 of this manuscript; this work was significantly improved through their feedback. S.A. acknowledges support from NASA through the postdoctoral Program at GSFC. C. Bautista acknowledges support from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) under agreement (LCF/BQ/AA16/11580051) and by the Fonds de recherche du Québec Nature et technologies (FRQNT) (#274987). C. Blanco acknowledges support from NASA under award 80NSSC21K0595. D.B. acknowledges support from Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) and postdoctoral support from LGPM-CentralSupélec and NASA under award 80NSSC23K1477. E. Camprubi acknowledges support from UT System for a STARs award. A.C.-R. acknowledges funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant number RGPIN/05278–2018), the Fonds de recherche Nature et Technologies of Québec (grant number 314488), and the Fondation J. Armand Bombardier Excellence Scholarship. A.C.-R.’s research was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program from the NASA Astrobiology Program administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities under contract with NASA. S.F.J. acknowledges support from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement no. 847648 (the fellowship code is LCF/BQ/PI21/11830015). T.Z.J. acknowledges support from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) grants-in-aid 18K14354 and 21K14746, a Tokyo Institute of Technology Yoshinori Ohsumi Fund for Fundamental Research, the Mizuho Foundation for the Promotion of Sciences, and by the Temporary Assistant Program by the DE&I Section of Science Tokyo. A.K. acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement no. 101068029. C.M. acknowledges support from NASA through the postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of NASA. O.M. acknowledges support from The John Templeton Foundation (#62828) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (2023.05971.CEECIND). B.K.D.P. acknowledges support from the NSERC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. K.P. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC 2181/1 - 390900948 (the Heidelberg STRUCTURES Excellence Cluster) and is a fellow of the International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Cosmic Physics at the University of Heidelberg (IMPRS-HD).","publication":"Cell Reports Physical Science","file_date_updated":"2026-05-06T06:48:33Z","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"DOAJ_listed":"1","date_created":"2026-04-19T22:07:50Z","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","year":"2026","intvolume":"         7","doi":"10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211","ddc":["570"],"_id":"21753","title":"What it takes to solve the origins of life: An integrated review. Part 2: Theoretical methods and emerging trends","file":[{"content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"d5abe5b5bd4b9ee58aa6f4917f688ad9","file_name":"2026_CellReports_OoLEN.pdf","date_created":"2026-05-06T06:48:33Z","file_id":"21804","date_updated":"2026-05-06T06:48:33Z","creator":"dernst","file_size":5265320,"access_level":"open_access","success":1,"relation":"main_file"}],"article_number":"103211","article_type":"original","publication_status":"published","oa":1,"abstract":[{"text":"The origin(s) of life (OoL), which has puzzled scientists for centuries, remains a major scientific challenge in the 21st century. Understanding the processes relevant to the OoL demands theoretical frameworks that can connect processes across scales, from microscopic dynamics to emergent levels of organization. While experimental studies generate a wealth of data, theoretical and computational approaches provide the structure necessary to interpret and generalize these findings. In Part 1, we examined the most widely used experimental techniques in the field. Here, we focus on the mathematical, physical, and computational techniques used to model phenomena relevant to life’s origin(s). We discuss methods ranging from quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics to chemical reaction networks, autocatalysis, and evolutionary modeling, as well as information-theoretic and phylogenetic approaches that link chemical and biological organization. We further highlight emerging trends such as synthetic biology, omics-based methods, and laboratory automation as novel points of contact for theory-experiment integration. Ultimately, we aim to provide an educational tool that can facilitate more post-disciplinary collaborations in OoL research by helping scientists understand what they can do about the problem of life’s origins, rather than telling them how to think about it.","lang":"eng"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2666-3864"]},"status":"public","date_updated":"2026-05-07T12:13:07Z","citation":{"chicago":"Asche, Silke, Carla Bautista, Celia Blanco, David Boulesteix, Alexandre Champagne-Ruel, Cole Mathis, Omer Markovitch, et al. “What It Takes to Solve the Origins of Life: An Integrated Review. Part 2: Theoretical Methods and Emerging Trends.” <i>Cell Reports Physical Science</i>. Elsevier, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211\">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211</a>.","mla":"Asche, Silke, et al. “What It Takes to Solve the Origins of Life: An Integrated Review. Part 2: Theoretical Methods and Emerging Trends.” <i>Cell Reports Physical Science</i>, vol. 7, no. 4, 103211, Elsevier, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211\">10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211</a>.","ieee":"S. Asche <i>et al.</i>, “What it takes to solve the origins of life: An integrated review. Part 2: Theoretical methods and emerging trends,” <i>Cell Reports Physical Science</i>, vol. 7, no. 4. Elsevier, 2026.","ama":"Asche S, Bautista C, Blanco C, et al. What it takes to solve the origins of life: An integrated review. Part 2: Theoretical methods and emerging trends. <i>Cell Reports Physical Science</i>. 2026;7(4). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211\">10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211</a>","short":"S. Asche, C. Bautista, C. Blanco, D. Boulesteix, A. Champagne-Ruel, C. Mathis, O. Markovitch, Z. Peng, A.V. Dass, A. Adams, E. Camprubi, E.S. Colizzi, S. Colón-Santos, H. Dromiack, V. Erastova, A. Garcia, G. Grimaud, A. Halpern, S.A. Harrison, S.F. Jordan, T.Z. Jia, A. Kahana, A. Kolchinsky, O. Moron-Garcia, R. Mizuuchi, J. Nan, Y. Orlova, B.K.D. Pearce, K. Paschek, M. Preiner, S. Pinna, E. Rodríguez-Román, L. Schwander, S. Sharma, H.B. Smith, A. Vieira, J.C. Xavier, Cell Reports Physical Science 7 (2026).","ista":"Asche S, Bautista C, Blanco C, Boulesteix D, Champagne-Ruel A, Mathis C, Markovitch O, Peng Z, Dass AV, Adams A, Camprubi E, Colizzi ES, Colón-Santos S, Dromiack H, Erastova V, Garcia A, Grimaud G, Halpern A, Harrison SA, Jordan SF, Jia TZ, Kahana A, Kolchinsky A, Moron-Garcia O, Mizuuchi R, Nan J, Orlova Y, Pearce BKD, Paschek K, Preiner M, Pinna S, Rodríguez-Román E, Schwander L, Sharma S, Smith HB, Vieira A, Xavier JC. 2026. What it takes to solve the origins of life: An integrated review. Part 2: Theoretical methods and emerging trends. Cell Reports Physical Science. 7(4), 103211.","apa":"Asche, S., Bautista, C., Blanco, C., Boulesteix, D., Champagne-Ruel, A., Mathis, C., … Xavier, J. C. (2026). What it takes to solve the origins of life: An integrated review. Part 2: Theoretical methods and emerging trends. <i>Cell Reports Physical Science</i>. Elsevier. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211\">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103211</a>"},"publisher":"Elsevier","tmp":{"legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode","name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png","short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)"},"date_published":"2026-04-15T00:00:00Z","volume":7,"OA_place":"publisher","author":[{"first_name":"Silke","last_name":"Asche","full_name":"Asche, Silke"},{"last_name":"Bautista","full_name":"Bautista, Carla","first_name":"Carla"},{"last_name":"Blanco","full_name":"Blanco, Celia","first_name":"Celia"},{"full_name":"Boulesteix, David","last_name":"Boulesteix","first_name":"David"},{"first_name":"Alexandre","last_name":"Champagne-Ruel","full_name":"Champagne-Ruel, Alexandre"},{"last_name":"Mathis","full_name":"Mathis, Cole","first_name":"Cole"},{"full_name":"Markovitch, Omer","last_name":"Markovitch","first_name":"Omer"},{"last_name":"Peng","full_name":"Peng, Zhen","first_name":"Zhen"},{"last_name":"Dass","full_name":"Dass, Avinash Vicholous","first_name":"Avinash Vicholous"},{"first_name":"Alyssa","full_name":"Adams, Alyssa","last_name":"Adams"},{"last_name":"Camprubi","full_name":"Camprubi, Eloi","first_name":"Eloi"},{"last_name":"Colizzi","full_name":"Colizzi, Enrico Sandro","first_name":"Enrico Sandro"},{"first_name":"Stephanie","full_name":"Colón-Santos, Stephanie","last_name":"Colón-Santos"},{"first_name":"Hannah","full_name":"Dromiack, Hannah","last_name":"Dromiack"},{"first_name":"Valentina","last_name":"Erastova","full_name":"Erastova, Valentina"},{"first_name":"Amanda","last_name":"Garcia","full_name":"Garcia, Amanda"},{"full_name":"Grimaud, Ghjuvan","last_name":"Grimaud","first_name":"Ghjuvan"},{"first_name":"Aaron","full_name":"Halpern, Aaron","last_name":"Halpern"},{"last_name":"Harrison","full_name":"Harrison, Stuart A.","first_name":"Stuart A."},{"first_name":"Seán F.","last_name":"Jordan","full_name":"Jordan, Seán F."},{"last_name":"Jia","full_name":"Jia, Tony Z.","first_name":"Tony Z."},{"first_name":"Amit","last_name":"Kahana","full_name":"Kahana, Amit"},{"first_name":"Artemy","last_name":"Kolchinsky","full_name":"Kolchinsky, Artemy"},{"full_name":"Moron-Garcia, Odin","last_name":"Moron-Garcia","first_name":"Odin"},{"full_name":"Mizuuchi, Ryo","last_name":"Mizuuchi","first_name":"Ryo"},{"first_name":"Jingbo","full_name":"Nan, Jingbo","last_name":"Nan"},{"first_name":"Yuliia","full_name":"Orlova, Yuliia","last_name":"Orlova"},{"last_name":"Pearce","full_name":"Pearce, Ben K.D.","first_name":"Ben K.D."},{"first_name":"Klaus","full_name":"Paschek, Klaus","last_name":"Paschek"},{"first_name":"Martina","full_name":"Preiner, Martina","last_name":"Preiner"},{"first_name":"Silvana","last_name":"Pinna","full_name":"Pinna, Silvana"},{"first_name":"Eduardo","full_name":"Rodríguez-Román, Eduardo","last_name":"Rodríguez-Román"},{"last_name":"Schwander","full_name":"Schwander, Loraine","first_name":"Loraine"},{"last_name":"Sharma","id":"36996868-4916-11f1-8c9d-c0c901467b61","full_name":"Sharma, Siddhant","first_name":"Siddhant"},{"first_name":"Harrison B.","full_name":"Smith, Harrison B.","last_name":"Smith"},{"full_name":"Vieira, Andrey","last_name":"Vieira","first_name":"Andrey"},{"first_name":"Joana C.","last_name":"Xavier","full_name":"Xavier, Joana C."}],"article_processing_charge":"Yes","has_accepted_license":"1","month":"04","day":"15","issue":"4","quality_controlled":"1","scopus_import":"1","oa_version":"Published Version","OA_type":"gold"}