Graham Cooks

Meet Graham Cooks

Controversial opinion? I think that the stickiest amino acid – serine – played a key role in molecular homochirogenesis – whether this occurred on earth or elsewhere. The basis for this argument is the ease with which the serine octamer, a uniquely stable non-covalent amino acid cluster, undergoes chiral enrichment during sublimation and evaporation. Evidence is found in a series of publications, most recently, Zhang et al. (2018) in Angew. Chem. and Chen, Wei and Cooks (2021) in Anal. Chem.