Sarah E. Maurer

Dr. Maurer is interested in the abiogenesis from both the origins-of-life and synthetic biology perspectives. She builds model cells from amphiphiles, and examines possible life-like properties, such as metabolism or growth and division.

She uses a variety of techniques, including fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, ELISA, gas chromatography, and high pressure liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. She is always looking for enthusiastic students to do research 

Her current projects include:

• Determination of membrane fitness landscapes and applying high throughput methods to understand and predict environmental and functional membrane fitness
• Changes in mixtures of prebiotic chemicals when put under environmental pressure. She is specifically interested in the loss of molecular diversity and an increase in function through environmental selection.
• Electron transport across membranes in prebiotic systems to understand the limitations and opportunities that membranes impart when part of a gradient metabolism.
• Development of archaeal liposomes to understand the role of membrane composition of measured functions.