What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories
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 origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories. Cell Reports Physical Science. 7(4), 103212.
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Author
Asche, Silke;
Bautista, Carla;
Blanco, Celia;
Boulesteix, David;
Champagne-Ruel, Alexandre;
Mathis, Cole;
Markovitch, Omer;
Peng, Zhen;
Dass, Avinash Vicholous;
Adams, Alyssa;
Camprubi, Eloi;
Colizzi, Enrico Sandro
All
All
Abstract
The origin(s) of life (OoL), which has puzzled scientists for centuries, remains a major scientific challenge in the 21st century. Research on OoL spans many disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology, planetary sciences, computer science, and mathematics. The sheer number of different scientific perspectives relevant to the problem has resulted in the coexistence of diverse tools, techniques, data, and software in OoL studies. This has made communication between the disciplines relevant to the OoL extremely difficult because the interpretation of data, analyses, or standards of evidence varies dramatically. Here, we hope to bridge this wide field of study by providing common ground via the consolidation of techniques rather than positing a unifying view on how life emerges. In part 1 of this review, we cover common experimental techniques that have been used significantly in OoL studies in recent years, while in part 2, we review theoretical, computational, and integrative methods. Here, we discuss the use of spectroscopy, spectrometry, chromatography, microscopy, and sequencing methods for characterizing diverse materials. We further discuss the role of data repositories in facilitating the analysis and dissemination of experimental data. This review provides a baseline expectation and understanding of the analytical aspects of origins’ research. 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.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2026-04-15
Journal Title
Cell Reports Physical Science
Publisher
Elsevier
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).
Volume
7
Issue
4
Article Number
103212
eISSN
IST-REx-ID
Cite this
Asche S, Bautista C, Blanco C, et al. What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories. Cell Reports Physical Science. 2026;7(4). doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103212
Asche, S., Bautista, C., Blanco, C., Boulesteix, D., Champagne-Ruel, A., Mathis, C., … Xavier, J. C. (2026). What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories. Cell Reports Physical Science. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103212
Asche, Silke, Carla Bautista, Celia Blanco, David Boulesteix, Alexandre Champagne-Ruel, Cole Mathis, Omer Markovitch, et al. “What It Takes to Solve the Origin of Life: An Integrated Review. Part 1–Experimental Methods and Data Repositories.” Cell Reports Physical Science. Elsevier, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103212.
S. Asche et al., “What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories,” Cell Reports Physical Science, vol. 7, no. 4. Elsevier, 2026.
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 origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories. Cell Reports Physical Science. 7(4), 103212.
Asche, Silke, et al. “What It Takes to Solve the Origin of Life: An Integrated Review. Part 1–Experimental Methods and Data Repositories.” Cell Reports Physical Science, vol. 7, no. 4, 103212, Elsevier, 2026, doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103212.
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