Shashi Thutupalli

Yeasts in liquid nitrogen. Now out @elife.bsky.social

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

With all the discussion about the 45mer, here is our story of what might precede that.

And this story has a 42 — the atomic number of Molybdenum.

If the origins of complex molecules, protocells and perhaps life, interest you, read our latest preprint — arxiv.org/abs/2601.11013

De novo emergence of metabolically active protocells A continuous route from a disordered soup of simple chemical feedstocks to a functional protocell -- a compartment that metabolizes, grows, and propagates -- remains elusive. Here, we show that a homo...

Protocells from three inorganic salts, some formaldehyde and water?

They grow? They synthesise organic molecules of core biomolecular classes: amino acids, sugars, lipid-like motifs?

And, there are similar structures in today's oceans?

Yes! Read on.

arxiv.org/abs/2601.11013

With all the discussion about the 45mer, here is our story of what might precede that.

And this story has a 42 — the atomic number of Molybdenum.

If the origins of complex molecules, protocells and perhaps life, interest you, read our latest preprint — arxiv.org/abs/2601.11013

Maybe you’ll like our recent work too

bsky.app/profile/stpa...

Very cool work, congratulations! Perhaps you will also find our recent work on the formation of protocells from a very simple chemical soup of some interest.

bsky.app/profile/stpa...

Very cool work, congratulations! Perhaps you will also find our recent work on the formation of protocells from a very simple chemical soup of some interest.

bsky.app/profile/stpa...

Theirs is a story to which tweet threads cannot do justice. Stay tuned for more of that.

We just launched their papers at the Archives at NCBS a few weeks ago

catalogue.archives.ncbs.res.in/repositories...

This work is inspired by the (nearly) lost and mostly forgotten pioneering efforts of Krishna Bahadur and Ranganayaki who worked in from the 1950s through to the early 1990s in Allahabad India.

De novo emergence of metabolically active protocells A continuous route from a disordered soup of simple chemical feedstocks to a functional protocell -- a compartment that metabolizes, grows, and propagates -- remains elusive. Here, we show that a homo...

We're enormously excited to share this work.
Comments, thoughts, and provocations very welcome!

arxiv.org/abs/2601.11013

@ncbsbangalore.bsky.social

@simonsfoundation.org

@ Murty Trust

We think this is just the start of a much larger story, with implications for how we think about connecting simple protocells to lipid-membrane bound protocells, for life-adjacent organization and for broadening how we look for signatures of life, on Earth and beyond.

Finally, the surprise we didn't anticipate.

Hollow, blue, molybdenum-rich microspheres were recently discovered inside an Indo-Pacific ocean sponge: morphology, elemental composition, even colour polymorphism strikingly similar to what we make in the lab.

This is not chemistry happening in bulk solution. The compartments are the chemical crucibles for the synthesis! They actively consume feedstock, dissipate energy for weeks, and selectively sequester the complex products they generate.

This is the hallmark of protometabolism.

What is this dissipation all about?

Organic synthesis from the C1 formaldehyde source!

And what is being synthesised?

A remarkable molecular diversity including many core biomolecular classes: amino acids, sugars, lipid-like amphiphiles, small metabolites!

These compartments are dynamic chemical crucibles.

They exhibit sustained dissipation for weeks (even months!)

And, mature compartments produce internal spherules that grow into new compartments with similar a chemical compositions.

Could this be a route to self-perpetuation?

But these aren't just pretty structures.

They grow.

They selectively sequester elements from the surrounding solution. Their composition evolves dynamically over hours before settling into a steady state.

Our recipe: formaldehyde, iron sulfate, ammonium molybdate, ammonium phosphate, and water. That's it.

Within a couple of hours, beautiful blue microspheres appear: hollow, soft, sticky compartments with liquid interiors.

Take away any one ingredient and you get nothing.

My student Nayan and I have been obsessing over a deceptively simple question for some years now: can you get a functional protocell to emerge spontaneously, from a simple chemical mixture?

Not assembled from complex parts, but self-organised from simple feedstocks.

De novo emergence of metabolically active protocells A continuous route from a disordered soup of simple chemical feedstocks to a functional protocell -- a compartment that metabolizes, grows, and propagates -- remains elusive. Here, we show that a homo...

Protocells from three inorganic salts, some formaldehyde and water?

They grow? They synthesise organic molecules of core biomolecular classes: amino acids, sugars, lipid-like motifs?

And, there are similar structures in today's oceans?

Yes! Read on.

arxiv.org/abs/2601.11013

What is more, this metabolic firework can result in fractal morphogenesis of the resulting colony. We think this is due to a hydrodynamic analogue of Diffusion Limited Aggregation, which we term Circulation Driven Aggregation.

Non-motile microbes are not prisoners of diffusive transport. Just their metabolic activity can be sufficient to stir up the ambient fluid and cause explosive long-range dispersal -- a "metabolic firework".

Our latest work -- arxiv.org/abs/2512.16288

We're looking for creative engineers/tinkerers/tool builders that want to engage with cutting-edge research questions in our lab at the @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social

Please help me share the word!

The Skysynth feature of from the Vera Rubin Observatory (@vrubinobs.bsky.social) is absolutely magical. Explore cosmic sounds. To get an idea, turn on your speakers for the movie below -- it's amazing!

rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-f...

They are fanning themselves, clearly :)

stay tuned! :)

As always, Will is a master storyteller! Here’s a great thread about our recent paper.

Metabolically driven flows enable exponential growth in macroscopic multicellular yeast Metabolically generated flow is an emergent mechanism that alleviates diffusion limits in macroscopic multicellular yeast.

We find that simple metabolically-driven physical mechanisms can be co-opted to generate large flows, upending the long held view that flagella or complex fluid transport structures are required for the evolution of large size in multicellular organisms.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We have a new paper out on an issue that has been discussed for more than a century -- how can fundamental biophysical constraints on nutrient transport be overcome to solve one of the most significant challenges associated with the evolution of multicellularity?

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We’re celebrating the newest graduate from my lab — Dr. Charuhansini Tvishamayi!

Those of you in Bangalore, free next Sunday and interested, please come, it will be a pleasure!

Poster courtesy: members of the lab.