Upon arriving in the European capital in 2012, Canadian researcher Joseph Moran was drawn to the University of Strasbourg and its Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS), which was home to renowned researchers such as Jean-Marie Lehn and Jean-Pierre Sauvage (Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry).
Based at ISIS, Joseph Moran quickly secured the prestigious European ERC Starting Grant in 2015 to begin research onthe emergence of the metabolic reactions that gave rise to life.
In 2018, the chemist was promoted to professor at the University of Strasbourg at just 36 years old and was named by *Chemical & Engineering News* magazine as one of the “Talented Twelve” (a list of 12 rising stars in chemistry, among the brightest in the world). That same year, Joseph Moran became director of the brand-new CSC (Chemistry of Complex Systems) research school, a highly selective graduate school dedicated to training future researchers and scientific leaders in chemistry.
Having been awarded a second ERC grant (ERC Consolidator Grant) in 2020 for the “MetabolismOrigins” project, the Canadian chemist has cemented his position as a leading researcher at the Strasbourg campus. This grant will enable Joseph Moran to continue his research into a new, metabolism-guided approach to prebiotic chemistry. This approach is shared by two other research teams in Germany led by William F. Martin, a professor at the University of Düsseldorf, and by Harun Tüysüz, a project leader at the Max Planck Institute. Moran and Tüysüz are recipients of the 2020 “Jean-Marie Lehn Researcher” Award, which recognizes promising collaborations between young French and German researchers in the fields of health, pharmacology, and chemistry.
The goal of his research is to gain a deep understanding of how and why the biochemistry of life emerged, while also explaining how it functions today, based on the fundamental principles of catalysis and organic chemistry. Joseph Moran and his team have discovered that metals and metal ions such as iron and zinc can react with carbon dioxide and carry out part of the reverse Krebs cycle and the entire acetyl-CoA pathway—two of the oldest metabolic pathways.
The reverse Krebs cycle enables the synthesis of the five precursors that form the basis of sugars, amino acids, and other molecules essential to cellular metabolism. Within living organisms, these reactions are catalyzed by enzymes, which are themselves composed of amino acids. So which came first? The enzyme or the reverse Krebs cycle? This question echoes the well-known chicken-or-egg dilemma. Drawing inspiration from the environment found in oceanic hydrothermal vents—where primitive organisms have been observed—Joseph Moran’s team succeeded in recreating experimental conditions that allowed them to carry out six reaction sequences of the reverse Krebs cycle in the absence of enzymes. This breakthrough supports the conclusion that certain metabolic pathways may have existed even before the emergence of life—and thus before the emergence of enzymes.
These discoveries shed light onthe existence of reactions essential to living organisms that emerged before the first cell came into being. A fascinating topic brilliantly explored by a young, multi-talented researcher.
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