Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, PhD
Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Research Focus
Research in our group is focused on the use of synthetic organic chemistry and methodology to
- experimentally address questions concerning the origins of life with respect to the advent of functional monomers and the emergence of informational polymers.
- fashion artificial informational polymers in order to expand the interface between synthetic nucleic acids and the natural biopolymers (proteins and RNA/DNA).
- investigate protometabolic chemical reactions and networks that have potential to evolve towards self-sustaining reaction cycles.
- synthesize (prebiotically inspired) vesicles and study their transition to functional protocells capable of harboring reaction networks.
- make available novel molecular tools that may provide new avenues for probing biological systems and for research in synthetic biology.
- make available diverse novel molecules and intermediates that would be useful in chemical therapeutics.
Select Publications
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Cruz, Harold A.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Selection of Ribofuranose-Isomer Among Pentoses by Phosphorylation with Diamidophosphate. 2025, 64, e202509810.
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Ter-Ovanessian, Louis M P; Ryan, Kate L.; Shaarda, Joshua; Stubbs, R Tren T.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Springsteen, Greg From Amino Acids to a-Keto Acids via ß-Elimination and Transamination Initiates a Pathway to Prebiotic Reaction Networks. 2025, 64, e202507248.
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Gull, Maheen; Cruz, Harold A.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Pasek, Matthew A. Phosphorylation of nucleosides by P-N bond species generated from prebiotic reduced phosphorus sources. 2025, 8, 187.
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Sutton, Scot M.; Pulletikurti, Sunil; Lin, Huacan; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Liotta, Charles L. Abiotic aldol reactions of formaldehyde with ketoses and aldoses???Implications for the prebiotic synthesis of sugars by the formose reaction. Chem 2025, 11, 102553.
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Yadav, Mahipal; Pulletikurti, Sunil; Yerabolu, Jayasudhan R.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Cyanide as a primordial reductant enables a protometabolic reductive glyoxylate pathway. 2022, 14, 170-178.
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Frenkel-Pinter, M.; Haynes, J. W.; Mohyeldin, A. M.; Martin, C.; Sargon, A. B.; Petrov, A. S.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Hud, N. V.; Williams, L. D.; Leman, Lucas J. Mutually stabilizing interactions between proto-peptides and RNA. Nature Communications 2020, 11.
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Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Life's biological chemistry: a destiny or destination starting from prebiotic chemistry?. Chemistry-a European Journal 2018, 24, 16708-16715.
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Sebastianelli, Lorenzo; Kaur, Harpreet; Chen, Ziniu; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Mansy, Sheref S. A Magnesium Binding Site And The Anomeric Effect Regulate The Abiotic Redox Chemistry Of Nicotinamide Nucleotides. 2024, 30, e202400411.
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Pulletikurti, Sunil; Yadav, Mahipal; Springsteen, Greg; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Prebiotic synthesis of a-amino acids and orotate from a-ketoacids potentiates transition to extant metabolic pathways. 2022, 14, 1142-1150.
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Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Giving rise to life: Transition from prebiotic chemistry to protobiology. Accounts of Chemical Research 2017, 50, 455-459.
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Pulletikurti, Sunil; Veena, Kollery S.; Yadav, Mahipal; Deniz, Ashok A.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Experimentally modeling the emergence of prebiotically plausible phospholipid vesicles. Chem 2024, 10, 1839.
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Veena, Kollery S.; Cruz, H A.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Microwave-Assisted One-Step Synthesis of 2',3'-Cyclic Phosphates of Nucleosides. 2023, 3, e834.
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Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Snieckus, V. Prebiotic organic chemistry and chemical pre-biology: speaking to the synthetic organic chemists. Synlett 2017, 28, 27-29.
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Yi, Ruiqin; Mojica, Mike; Fahrenbach, Albert C.; James Cleaves, H; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Liotta, Char L. Carbonyl Migration in Uronates Affords a Potential Prebiotic Pathway for Pentose Production. 2023, 3, 2522-2535.
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Lin, Huacan; Jiménez, Eddy I.; Arriola, Joshua T.; Müller, Ulrich F.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Concurrent Prebiotic Formation of Nucleoside-Amidophosphates and Nucleoside-Triphosphates Potentiates Transition from Abiotic to Biotic Polymerization. 2022, 61, e202113625.
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Frenkel-Pinter, M.; Haynes, J. W.; Martin, C.; Petrov, A. S.; Burcar, B. T.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Hud, N. V.; Leman, Lucas J.; Williams, L. D. Selective incorporation of proteinaceous over nonproteinaceous cationic amino acids in model prebiotic oligomerization reactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2019, 116, 16338-16346.
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Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan On the Emergence of RNA. Israel Journal of Chemistry 2015, 55, 837-850.
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Cruz, H A.; Jiménez, Eddy I.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Enhancing Prebiotic Phosphorylation and Modulating the Regioselectivity of Nucleosides with Diamidophosphate†. 2023, 145, 23781-23793.
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Clay, Alyssa P.; Cooke, Rach E.; Kumar, Ravi; Yadav, Mahipal; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Springsteen, Greg A Plausible Prebiotic One-Pot Synthesis of Orotate and Pyruvate Suggestive of Common Protometabolic Pathways. 2022, 61, e202112572.
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Butch, Christopher; Cope, Elizabeth D.; Pollet, Pamela; Gelbaum, Leslie; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Liotta, Char L. Production of tartrates by cyanide-mediated dimerization of glyoxylate: a potential abiotic pathway to the citric acid cycle. 2013, 135, 13440-5.
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Toparlak, Ö Duhan; Sebastianelli, Lorenzo; Egas Ortuno, Veronica; Karki, Megha; Xing, Yanfeng; Szostak, Jack W.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan; Mansy, Sheref S S. Cyclophospholipids Enable a Protocellular Life Cycle. 2023, 17, 23772-23783.
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Osumah, Abdulakeem; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Diamidophosphate (DAP): A Plausible Prebiotic Phosphorylating Reagent with a Chem to BioChem Potential?. Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology 2021.
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Sagi, V. N.; Karri, P.; Hu, F.; Krishnamurthy, Ramanarayanan Diastereoselective self-condensation of dihydroxyfumaric acid in water: Potential route to sugars. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition 2011, 50, 8127-8130.
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