Publications

Projections of Earth's Technosphere: Civilization Collapse-Recovery Dynamics and Detectability

C. Blanco, J. Haqq-Misra, G. Profitiliotis · Under review

Astrobiology Before, During, and After Crewed Space Missions

C. Blanco, A. Berea, A. Mohanty, A. Poddar, R.B. Gupta · Under review

From Rule-Taking to Rule-Making Chemistry

C. Blanco · Under review

Better origin(s) of life research through collaboration across disciplines

S. Rajamani, C. Mathis, S. Asche, D. Boulesteix, C. Blanco, O. Markovitch, A. Champagne-Ruel, C. Bautista, Z. Peng · Cell Reports Physical Science

Context Without Contact: Top-Down Information Flow from Shared Modulation in Uncoupled Prebiotic Systems

C. Blanco · Royal Society Open Science, 13(4), 251750

Molecular Complexity Constrained Early Amino Acid Recruitment into the Genetic Code

S.A. Hashmi, H. Chok, R. Cabrera, C. Blanco · Genome Biology and Evolution, 18(3), evag012

What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1 — Experimental methods and data repositories

OoLEN et al. · Cell Reports Physical Science, 7(4), 103212

What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 2 — Theoretical methods and emerging trends

OoLEN et al. · Cell Reports Physical Science

DNA tokenization efficiently compresses information and reflects phylogenetic relationships

T. Noll-Walker, K. Elasri, C. Balkan, E. Jo, H.J. Cleaves II, M. Sandora, C. Blanco · Proceedings of the Artificial Life Conference 2025 (ALIFE 2025), MIT Press

Space Settlement and Astrobiology — Connections and Overlaps

A. Berea, C. Blanco, J. Haqq-Misra, S. Som, G. Profitiliotis, G. Lau · Space Policy, 101727

EasyDIVER+: An Advanced Tool for Analyzing High Throughput Sequencing Data from In Vitro Evolution of Nucleic Acids or Amino Acids

C. Blanco, A. Tee, P. Sharma, M.S. Newton, K. Lee, S.E. Erickson, B. Seelig, I.A. Chen · J Mol Evol, 93(2), 229–237

In Memoriam: David Hochberg (1957–2023)

C. Blanco, T. Buhse, P. Cintas, I. Herreros, J.-C. Micheau, F. Moran, J. Perez-Mercader, J.M. Ribo, M. Stich, C. Viedma · Astrobiology

Modulation of α-synuclein aggregation in vitro by a DNA aptamer

C.H. Tran, R. Saha, C. Blanco, D. Bagchi, I.A. Chen · Biochemistry, 61(17), 1757–1765

Emergent properties as by-products of prebiotic evolution of aminoacylation ribozymes

E. Janzen, Y. Shen, A. Vázquez-Salazar, Z. Liu, C. Blanco, J. Kenchel, I.A. Chen · Nature Communications, 13(1), 1–12

PacBio sequencing output increased through uniform and directional fivefold concatenation

N. Kanwar, C. Blanco, I.A. Chen, B. Seelig · Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1–13

Article in GenomeWeb

EasyDIVER: a pipeline for assembling and counting high throughput sequencing data from in vitro evolution of nucleic acids or peptides

C. Blanco, S. Verbanic, B. Seelig, I.A. Chen · J. Mol. Evol., 88, 477–481

Promiscuous ribozymes and their proposed role in prebiotic evolution

E. Janzen, C. Blanco, H. Peng, J. Kenchel, I.A. Chen · Chem. Rev., 120(11), 4879–4897

High-throughput sequencing of in vitro selections of mRNA-displayed peptides: data analysis and applications

C. Blanco, S. Verbanic, B. Seelig, I.A. Chen · Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 22, 6492–6506

PCCP HOT article

Phage therapy administered noninvasively could be effective in thin tubes subject to episodic flow despite washout: a simulation study

C. Blanco, I.A. Chen · Phys. Biol., 16(5), 054001

Molecular fitness landscapes from high-coverage sequence profiling

C. Blanco, E. Janzen, A. Pressman, R. Saha, I.A. Chen · Annual Review of Biophysics, 48, 1–18

Mapping a systematic ribozyme fitness landscape reveals a frustrated evolutionary network for self-aminoacylating RNA

A.D. Pressman, Z. Liu, E. Janzen, C. Blanco, U.F. Müller, G.F. Joyce, R. Pascal, I.A. Chen · J. Am. Chem. Soc., 141(15), 6213–6223

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking from recycling in enantioselective polymerization

D. Hochberg, C. Blanco, M. Stich · In: Biological Systems: Nonlinear Dynamics Approach. SEMA SIMAI Springer Series, vol. 20

Analysis of evolutionarily independent protein-RNA complexes yields a criterion to evaluate the relevance of prebiotic scenarios

C. Blanco, M. Bayas, F. Yan, I.A. Chen · Current Biology, 28(4), 526–537.e5

phys.org · ScienceDaily · UCSB The Current · Daily Nexus · Dispatch perspective

Connections Between Mathematical Models of Prebiotic Evolution and Homochirality

C. Blanco, I.A. Chen · In: Prebiotic Chemistry and Chemical Evolution of Nucleic Acids. Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology, vol. 35

Mechanically induced homochirality in nucleated enantioselective polymerization

C. Blanco, M. Stich, D. Hochberg · J. Phys. Chem. B, 121(5), 942–955

The RNA World as a model system to study the origin of life

A. Pressman, C. Blanco, I.A. Chen · Current Biology, 25(19), R953–R963

Modeling spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and deracemization phenomena: discrete versus continuum approaches

C. Blanco, J.M. Ribo, D. Hochberg · Phys. Rev. E, 91(2), 022801

Absolute asymmetric synthesis in enantioselective autocatalytic reaction networks: theoretical games, speculations on chemical evolution and perhaps a synthetic option

J.M. Ribó, C. Blanco, J. Crusats, Z. El-Hachemi, D. Hochberg, A. Moyano · Chem. A Eur. J., 20(52), 17250–17271

The Viedma deracemization of racemic conglomerate mixtures as a paradigm of spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in aggregation and polymerization

C. Blanco, J. Crusats, Z. El-Hachemi, A. Moyano, S. Veintemillas-Verdaguer, D. Hochberg, J.M. Ribó · Chem. Phys. Chem., 14(17), 3982–3993

Spontaneous emergence of chirality in the limited enantioselectivity model: autocatalytic cycle driven by an external reagent

C. Blanco, J. Crusats, Z. El-Hachemi, A. Moyano, D. Hochberg, J.M. Ribó · Chem. Phys. Chem., 14(11), 2432

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in the limited enantioselective autocatalysis model: abyssal hydrothermal vents as scenario for the emergence of chirality in prebiotic chemistry

J.M. Ribó, J. Crusats, Z. El-Hachemi, A. Moyano, C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Astrobiology, 13(2), 132

Mirror symmetry breaking with limited enantioselective autocatalysis and temperature gradients: a stability survey

C. Blanco, J.M. Ribó, J. Crusats, Z. El-Hachemi, A. Moyano, D. Hochberg · Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 15(5), 1546

Chiral and chemical oscillations in a simple dimerization model

M. Stich, C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 15(1), 255

Stochastic mirror symmetry breaking: theoretical models and simulation of experiments

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Topics in Current Chemistry, 333, 157

Models for mirror symmetry breaking via β-sheet-controlled copolymerization: (i) mass balance and (ii) probabilistic treatment

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · J. Phys. Chem. B, 116(48), 13953

Induced mirror symmetry breaking via template-controlled copolymerization

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Chem. Commun., 48(30), 3659

Multi-state transitions and quantum oscillations of optical activity

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Phys. Rev. A, 85(2), 022114

Homochiral oligopeptides by chiral amplification: interpretation of experimental data with a copolymerization model

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 14(7), 2301

Chiral symmetry breaking via crystallization of the glycine and α-amino acids system: a mathematical model

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 13(28), 12920

Temporary mirror symmetry breaking and chiral excursions in open and closed systems

C. Blanco, M. Stich, D. Hochberg · Chem. Phys. Lett., 505(4), 140

Chiral polymerization: symmetry breaking and entropy production in closed systems

C. Blanco, D. Hochberg · Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 13(3), 839

PCCP HOT paper