Welcome Home, Systems Chemists!

Five years ago a number of eminent colleagues from prebiotic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry , theoretical biology and complex systems research attended Chembiogenesis 2005 in Venice, Italy - a conference within the EU network on "Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Evolution" (COST D27) [1]. Accidentally, the term "Systems Chemistry" appeared in the title of a scientific paper [2] published in the week when the meeting had a post-conference workshop, also entitled "Systems Chemistry". Chembiogenesis speakers re-gathered to discuss a potentially emergent field in which prebiotic and supramolecular chemistry start a crosstalk, enriched by insights from theoretical biology and the computer science dealing with complex systems. Although each school of thought has its own identity and language, it was possible to arrive at a tentative scope and vision for the field. Participants agreed to see Systems Chemistry as:？ A conjunction of supramolecular and prebiotic chemistry with theoretical biology and complex systems research addressing problems relating to the origins and synthesis of life.？ The bottom-up pendant of systems biology towards synthetic biology.？ Searching for a deeper understanding of structural and dynamic prerequisites leading to chemical self-replication and self-reproduction.？ The quest for the coupling of autocatalytic systems, the integration of metabolic, genetic, and membrane-forming subsystems into protocellular entities.？ The quest for the roots of Darwinian evolvability in chemical systems.？ The quest for chiral-symmetry breaking and asymmetric autocatalysis in such systems.*Participants were Mark Bedau (Portland), Donna Blackmond (London), Timoteo Carletti (Venice), Albert Eschenmoser (Zurich), Ben Feringa (Groningen), Reza Ghadiri (La Jolla), Martin Hanczyc (Odense), Ludovic Jullien (Paris), Günter von Kiedrowski (Bochum), Meir Lahav (Rehovot), Doron Lancet (Rehovot), Peter Nielsen (Copenhagen), Norman Packard (San Francisco), Irene Poli (Venice),