Protocells and the Origin of Life

Roberto Serra, full professor of Complex Systems at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (now retired), has previously been the Head of the Environmental Research Centre of the Montedison industrial group, the President of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence AI*IA, the Chairman of the Science Board of the European Centre for Living Technology and a fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study of the University of Amsterdam. His main research interests, besides protocells, concern the dynamical modelling of Complex Systems, with applications to gene regulatory networks and cell differentiation, the analysis of their organization and the dynamical systems approach to Artificial Intelligence. He is the author or editor of eleven books and of about 190 papers in international journals and conference proceedings with peer review.Marco Villani is associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and a fellow of the European Centre for Living Technology. His main research interests, besides protocells, concern the identification and analysis of the organization of Complex Systems. In particular,  he studies the dynamic modeling of gene regulation systems and socio-technological systems. He has been a member of the board of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA) and is currently a member of the Science Board of the European Centre for Living Technology. He is the author or editor of five books and of about 170 papers in international journals and conference proceedings with peer review.

• Setting the stage.- An overview of our main conceptual tool.- A bird’s eye view on cells.- Origins.- Spontaneous organization.- Self-organization in chemical reactions.- Collective self-replication in chemical reactions.- Protocells and synchronization.- Polymers in protocells.- Conclusions.