

In this origins-of-life project, I developed a high-throughput microscopy assay to study content exchange between protocell-like lipid vesicles during freeze–thaw cycles. We discovered that nucleic acids can transfer efficiently between vesicles without fusion, likely through transient membrane permeabilization. This offers a simple physical route for molecular exchange in primitive cell models.
Litschel T, Ganzinger KA, Movinkel T, Heymann M, Robinson T, Mutschler H, Schwille P
“Freeze-thaw cycles induce content exchange between cell-sized lipid vesicles” (Research Paper)
New Journal of Physics, 2018, 20:055008 [Link]