October 9, 2026 – HiPHis Conference: In Search of the Origins of Life: A World of RNA?
Philippe Nghe
Biophysicist, Professor at École Polytechnique, Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology
How can we scientifically study an event that occurred in the early history of Earth and left almost no direct trace? Research into the origins of life relies on developing scenarios, identifying possible transitions, and testing them experimentally. The “RNA world” hypothesis is one such scenario: RNA can carry information, fold, and catalyze reactions, but it remains to be understood how simple molecules could have formed systems capable of reproducing, varying, and evolving. Our research combines biochemistry, physics, microfluidics, and artificial intelligence to experimentally reconstruct some of these transitions.
This approach also leads us to question how knowledge about origins is constructed. What can a laboratory experiment reveal about a unique historical event? How can we distinguish between possibility, plausibility, and probability, or compare multiple scenarios when direct data are lacking? We also address these questions in collaboration with researchers in the philosophy of science who study methods for investigating origins, as well as in dialogue with anthropological work on ways of defining and representing life. The origin of life thus becomes a field for examining the relationships between experimentation, modeling, scientific narratives, and representations of life.
A graduate of École Polytechnique (X2002) who earned a Ph.D. in physics in 2009 from ESPCI Paris for his research on complex microfluidic systems, Philippe Nghe subsequently shifted his research focus to biophysics and the evolution of RNA-based genetic networks (including the question of the origins of life), adopting a highly interdisciplinary approach. As a faculty member and researcher at ESPCI Paris (Chemistry, Biology, and Innovation Laboratory—CBI, CNRS UMR 8231) from 2013 to 2025; he has since been a professor at École Polytechnique, where he joined the Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology (BIOC, CNRS UMR 7654), within which he leads the “Synthetic Biosystems” team (website).
Joint invitation with the IBMM—Max Mousseron Institute of Biomolecules.
The HiPhiS 2026 series is supported by the UM’s Science & Society Division.
HiPhiS Contacts: Laurent Boiteau (laurent.boiteau@umontpellier.fr)
