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Easy Manipulation of Architectures in Protein-based Hydrogels for Cell Culture Applications
Published on: August 4, 2017
Hypothesis: the origin of life in a hydrogel environment
Jack T Trevors1, Gerald H Pollack
1Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Department of Environmental Biology, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. jtrevors@uoguelph.ca
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
|April 14, 2005
Abstract:
A hypothesis is proposed that the first cell(s) on the Earth assembled in a hydrogel environment. Gel environments are capable of retaining water, oily hydrocarbons, solutes, and gas bubbles, and are capable of carrying out many functions, even in the absence of a membrane. Thus, the gel-like environment may have conferred distinct advantages for the assembly of the first cell(s).
