Publications

Starting from a homogeneous blend of non-biochemistry related substances, we use light to start a Polymerization Induced Self-Assembly (PISA) reaction that triggers the boot-up of micron scale chemical systems. After forming, these grow, move, implode, self-reproduce and, for different types, compete for resources and show their “struggle for existence”.

Albertsen, A., Szymański, J. & Pérez-Mercader, J. Emergent Properties of Giant Vesicles Formed by a Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly (PISA) Reaction. Sci Rep 7, 41534 (2017)

Juan Pérez-Mercader (2024). Making Biochemistry-Free (Generalized) Life in a Test Tube. In: The First Steps of Life, ed. Ernesto Di Mauro. Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781394264155.ch7 PDF

Samuel Pearce, Chenyu Lin and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2024). Adaptive and Dissipative Hierarchical Population Crowding of Synthetic Protocells through Click-PISA under Gradient Energy Inputs. Nano Letters. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04035

Sai Krishna Katla, Chenyu Lin and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2023). Competitive exclusion principle among synthetic non-biochemical protocells. Cell Reports Physical Science. 4, 101359. doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101359

Alberto P. Muñuzuri, Jean-Sébastien Gagnon and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2023). Numerical and renormalization group analysis of the phase diagram of a stochastic cubic autocatalytic reaction-diffusion system. Physical Review E. 107(3), 034213. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.107.034213

Martin Saavedra, Juan Pérez-Mercader and Alberto P. Munuzuri (2022). Intermittent regimes as a synchronization phenomenon in two sets of nonlinear chemical oscillators. Chaos. 32(11), 113125. doi:10.1063.5.0104610

Yifan Liu, Juan Pérez-Mercader and Istvan Z. Kiss (2022). Synchronization of Belousov-Zhabotinksy oscillators with electrochemical coupling in a spontaneous process. Chaos. 32(9) 093128. doi:10.1063/5.0096689

Alberto P. Muñuzuri and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2022). Unified representation of Life's basic properties by a 3-species Stochastic Cubic Autocatalytic Reaction-Diffusion system of equations. Physics of Life Reviews41. 64-83. doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2022.03.003 PDF

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Thomas C. Draper, Eszter Poros-Tarcali and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2022). pH Oscillating System for Molecular Computation as a Chemical Turing Machine. ACS Omegadoi:10.1021/acsomega.1c06505

Marta Dueñas-Diez and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2022). Computing by Chemistry: The Native Chemical Automata. In Handbook of Unconventional Computing ed. Andrew Adamatzky. World Scientific. doi:10.1142/9789811235740_0002

Samuel Pearce and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Chemoadaptive Polymeric Assemblies by Integrated Chemical Feedback in Self-Assembled Synthetic Protocells. ACS Central Sciencedoi:10.1021/acscentsci.1c00681

Thomas C. Draper, Marta Dueñas-Diez and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Exploring the symbol processing ‘time interval’ parametric constraint in a Belousov–Zhabotinsky operated chemical Turing machine. RSC Advances11(37). 23151-23160. doi:10.1039/d1ra03856g

Suzanne Ahmed and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Autonomous Low-Reynolds-Number Soft Robots with Structurally Encoded Motion and Their Thermodynamic Efficiency. Langmuir37(27). 8148-8156. doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00765

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Gong Cheng, Chenyu Lin and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Self-Organizing Microdroplet Protocells Displaying Light-Driven Oscillatory and Morphological Evolution. Small. 2101162. doi:10.1002/smll.202101162

Marta Dueñas-Diez and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Native Chemical Computation. A Generic Application of Oscillating Chemistry Illustrated with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. A Review. Frontiers in Chemistry. 9:611120. doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.611120

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Eszter Poros-Tarcali and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Concurrent self-regulated autonomous synthesis and functionalization of pH-responsive giant vesicles by a chemical pH oscillator. Soft Matterdoi:10.1039/D1SM00150G

Chenyu Lin, Sai Krishna Katla and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Photochemically induced cyclic morphological dynamics via degradation of autonomously produced, self-assembled polymer vesicles. Communications Chemistry4, 25. doi:10.1038/s42004-021-00464-8

David García-Selfa, Gourab Ghoshal, Christian Bick, Juan Pérez-Mercader and Alberto P. Muñuzuri (2021). Chemical oscillators synchronized via an active oscillating medium: Dynamics and phase approximation model. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals. 145. 110809. doi:10.1016/j.chaos.2021.110809

Jinshan Guo, Eszter Poros-Tarcali and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Periodic Polymerization and the Generation of Polymer Giant Vesicles Autonomously Driven by pH Oscillatory Chemistry. Frontiers in Chemistry9doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.576349

Chenyu Lin, Sai Krishna Katla and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2021). Enhanced fluorescence emission from rhodamine 6G dye through polymerization-induced self-assembly. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 406, 112992. doi:10.1016/j.jphotochem.2020.112992

Samuel Pearce and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2020). PISA: construction of self-organized and self-assembled functional vesicular structures. Polymer Chemistrydoi:10.1039/D0PY00564A

Emma J. Bunce, Adrian Martindale, Simon Lindsay, Karri Muinonen, David A. Rothery, Jim Pearson, Ivor McDonnell, Chris Thomas, Julian Thornhill, Tuomo Tikkanen, Charly Feldman, Juhani Huovelin, Seppo Korpela, Eero Esko, Arto Lehtolainen, Johannes Treis, Petra Majewski, Martin Hilchenbach, Timo Väisänen, Arto Luttinen, Tomas Kohout, Antti Penttilä, John Bridges, Katherine H. Joy, Maria Angeles Alcacera-Gil, Guilhem Alibert, Mahesh Anand, Nigel Bannister, Corinne Barcelo-Garcia, Chris Bicknell, Oliver Blake, Phil Bland, Gillian Butcher, Andy Cheney, Ulrich Christensen, Tony Crawford, Ian A. Crawford, Konrad Dennerl, Michele Dougherty, Paul Drumm, Raymond Fairbend, Maria Genzer, Manuel Grande, Graeme P. Hall, Rosie Hodnett, Paul Houghton, Suzanne Imber, Esa Kallio, Maria Luisa Lara, Ana Balado Margeli, Miguel J. Mas-Hesse, Sylvestre Maurice, Steve Milan, Peter Millington-Hotze, Seppo Nenonen, Larry Nittler, Tatsuaki Okada, Jens Ormö, Juan Pérez-Mercader, Richard Poyner, Eddy Robert, Duncan Ross, Miriam Pajas-Sanz, Emile Schyns, Julien Seguy, Lothar Strüder, Nathalie Vaudon, Jose Viceira-Martín, Hugo Williams, Dick Willingale and Tim Yeoman (2020). The BepiColombo Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer: Science Goals, Instrument Performance and Operations. Space Science Reviews216 (126). doi:10.1007/s11214-020-00750-2

Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, David Hochberg and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2020). Renormalization of stochastic differential equations with multiplicative noise using effective potential methods. Physical Review E102doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.102.062142

Victor Parro, J Miguel Mas-Hesse, Javier Gomez-Elvira, Álvaro Giménez and Juan-Pérez-Mercader (2020). Introduction—Centro de Astrobiología: 20 Years Building Astrobiology. Astrobiology20(9). doi:10.1089/ast.2020.0804

Juan Pérez-Mercarder and Yuandu Hu (2020 Aug. 4). Anti-clogging microfluidic multichannel device. US Patent 10,731,012

Yuandu Hu, Jason Tresback and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2020). Preparation of Ruthenium-Functionalized Microgels through the Intermolecular Crosslinking of Two Functionalized Polymers within Droplets and Study of Their Chemical/Photo-Active Behaviors. Polymer Degradation and Stabilitydoi:10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2020.109345

Juan Pérez-Mercader (2020). De novo laboratory synthesis of life mimics without biochemistry. ALIFE 2020: The 2020 Conference on Artificial Life. 483-490. doi:10.1162/isal_a_00282

Marta Dueñas-Díez and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2020). In-vitro Reconfigurability of Native Chemical Automata, the Inclusiveness of Their Hierarchy and Their Thermodynamics. Scientific Reports10, 6814. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-63576-6

Gong Cheng and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2020). Dissipative Self-Assembly of Dynamic Multicompartmentalized Microsystems with Light-Responsive Behaviors. Chemdoi:10.1016/j.chempr.2020.02.009

Liman Hou, Marta Dueñas-Díez, Rohit Srivastava, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). Flow chemistry controls self-assembly and cargo in Belousov-Zhabotinsky driven polymerization-induced self-assembly. Communications Chemistry2(139). doi:10.1038/s42004-019-0241-1

Yuandu Hu and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). Microcapsules with Distinct Dual-Layer Shells and Their Applications for the Encapsulation, Preservation, and Slow Release of Hydrophilic Small Molecules. ACS Applied Materials and Interfacesdoi:10.1021/acdsami.9b13699

Matthew Egbert, Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). From chemical soup to computing circuit: transforming a contiguous chemical medium into a logic gate network by modulating its external conditions. Journal of the Royal Society Interface16(158). doi:10.1098/rsif.2019.0190

David García-Selfa, Alberto P. Muñuzuri, Juan Pérez-Mercader, and David S. A. Simakov (2019). Resonant Behavior in a Periodically Forced Nonisothermal Oregonator. Journal of Physical Chemistry Adoi:10.1021/acs.jpca.9b05238

Marta Dueñas-Diez and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). How Chemistry Computes: Language Recognition by Non-Biochemical Chemical Automata. From Finite Automata to Turing Machines. iScience19, 514-526. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2019.08.007

Jinshan Guo, Eszter Poros-Tarcali, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). Evolving polymersomes autonomously generated in and regulated by a semi batch pH oscillator. Chemical Communcations55, 9353. doi:10.1039/c9cc03486b

Gong Cheng and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). Engineering programmable synthetic vesicles with permeability regulated by a single molecular bridge. Chemistry of Materials31(15), 5691-5698. doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b01635

Li Zeng, Stein B. Jacobsen, Dimitar D. Sasselov, Michail I. Petaev, Andrew Vanderburg, Mercedes Lopez-Morales, Juan Perez-Mercader, Thomas R. Mattsson, Gongjie Li, Matthew Z. Heising, Aldo S. Bonomo, Mario Damasso, Travis A. Berger, Hao Cao, Amit Levi, and Robin D. Wordsworth (2019). Growth Model Interpretation of Planet Size Distribution. PNASdoi:10.1073/pnas.1812905116

Marta Dueñas-Diez and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2019). Native Chemical Automata and the Thermodynamic Interpretation of Their Experimental Accept/Reject Responses. In The Energetics of Computing in Life and Machines, ed. David H. Wolpert, Chris Kempes, Joshua A. Grochow, and Peter F. Stadler. Santa Fe: SFI Press. arXiv:1903.03827

Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, David Hochberg, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Selection and control of pathways by using externally adjustable noise on a stochastic cubic autocatalytic chemical system. Physical Review E98(6), 062216. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.98.062216

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Gong Cheng and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Polymerization-induced self-assembly for artificial biology: opportunities and challenges. Macromolecular Rapid Communications40(2). doi:10.1002/marc/201800513

Alberto P. Muñuzuri, Balanagulu Busupalli, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Osmotically Induced Membrane Fission in Giant Polymer Vesicles: Multilamellarity and Effect of the Amphiphilic Block Lengths. Langmuirdoi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b01590

Matthew Egbert, Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Dynamic modulation of external conditions can transform chemistry into logic gates. Journal of the Royal Society Interface15, 20180169. doi:10.1098/rsif.2018.0169

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Kaixuan Ren and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Light-induced Evolution of Microaggregates: Transformation to Vesicles, Cyclic Growth and Collapse and Vesicle Fusion. Polymer Chemistrydoi:10.1039/C8PY00546J

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Sudhina Guragain and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Light-Mediated One-Pot Synthesis of ABC Triblock Copolymer in Aqueous Solution via RAFT and the Effect of pH on Copolymer Self-Assembly. Polymer Chemistry9, 4000-4006. doi:10.1039/C8PY00775F

Bishnu Bastakoti, Sudhina Guragain, Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Direct Synthesis of Hundred Nanometer and Beyond Scale Polymer Vesicles Using Chemical Oscillations. Chemistry: A European Journaldoi:10.1002/chem.201801633

Yuandu Hu and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Microfluidics Assisted Synthesis of Crosslinked Colloidosomes with Multisensitive Behaviors: a Potential Platform for Photo Memory Device and Blue Light-Triggered Release Vehicle. ACS Applied Nano Materialsdoi:10.1021/acsanm.8b00554

Matthew D. Egbert and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Methods for Measuring Viability and Evaluating Viability Indicators. Artificial Life24, 106-118. doi:10.1162/artl_a_00257

Rohit Srivastava, Marta Dueñas-Díez, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2018). Feed rate noise modulates autocatalysis and shapes the oscillations of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in a continuous stirred tank reactor. Reaction Chemistry & Engineeringdoi:10.1039/C7RE00196G

Christopher P. Kempes, David Wolpert, Zachary Cohen and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). The Thermodynamic Efficiency of Computations Made in Cells Across the Range of Life. Philosophical Transactions A 375(2109). doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0343

Yuandu Hu and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Microfluidics Fabrication of Self-Oscillating Microgel Clusters with Tailored Temperature-Responsive Properties Using Polymersomes as 'Microreactors'. Langmuir 33 14058-14065. doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b03166

Bishnu Prasad Bastakoti and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Autonomous Ex Novo Chemical Assembly with Blebbing and Division of Functional Polymer Vesicles from a "Homogeneous Mixture". Advanced Materialsdoi:10.1002/adma.201704368

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Bishnu Prasad Bastakoti and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Facile One Pot Synthesis of Functional Giant Polymeric Vesicles Controlled by Oscillatory Chemistry. Angewandte Chemiedoi:10.1002/anie.201703816 doi:10.1002/ange.201703816

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Kaixuan Ren and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Thermoresponsive Gels Directly Obtained via Visible Light-Mediated Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly with Oxygen Tolerance. Polymer Chemistry doi:10.1039/C7PY00558J

Jean-Sébastien Gagnon and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Clues on chemical mechanisms from renormalizability: The example of a noisy cubic autocatalytic model. Physica A doi:10.1016/j.physa.2017.04.002

Juan Pérez-Mercader, Marta Duenas-Diez, and Daniel Case (2017 Feb. 28). Chemically operated Turing machine. U.S. Patent 9,582,771

Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, David Hochberg, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Effects of spatial and temporal noise on a cubic-autocatalytic reaction-diffusion model. Physical Review E 95, 032106. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.95.032106

Anders N. Albertsen, Jan K. Szymański, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Emergent Properties of Giant Vesicles Formed by a Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly (PISA) Reaction. Scientific Reports 7, 41534. doi:10.1038/srep41534

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Yuandu Hu and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2017). Controlled Synthesis of Uniform, Micrometer-Sized Ruthenium Functionalized Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) Gel Particles and Their Application to the Catalysis of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction. Macromolecular Rapid Communicationsdoi:10.1002/marc.201600577 [cover]

Jan K. Szymanski and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2016). Direct Optical Observations of Vesicular Self-Assembly in Large-Scale Polymeric Structures During Photocontrolled Biphasic Polymerization. Polymer Chemistry 7, 7211-7215. doi:10.1039/C6PY01497F

Yuandu Hu and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2016). Microfluidic fabrication of polymersomes enclosing an active Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction: Effect on their stability of solute concentrations in the external media. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 146, 406-414. doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2016.06.009

James L. Friar, Terrance Goldman, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2016). Ubiquity of Benford's law and emergence of the reciprocal distribution. Physics Letters A 380(22-23), 1985-1899. doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2016.03.045

Gourab Ghoshal, Alberto P. Muñuzuri, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2016). Emergence of a super-synchronized mobbing state in a large population of coupled chemical oscillators. Scientific Reports 6, 19186. doi:10.1038/srep19186

Matthew D. Egbert and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2016). Adapting to Adaptations: Behavioural Strategies that are Robust to Mutations and Other Organisational-Transformations. Scientific Reports 6, 18963. doi:10.1038/srep18963

Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, David Hochberg, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2015). Small-scale properties of a stochastic cubic-autocatalytic reaction-diffusion model. Phys. Rev. E. 92, 042114. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.92.042114

Jan K. Szymanski, Fernando Temprano-Coleto and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2015). Unusual kinetics of poly(ethylene glycol) oxidation with cerium(IV) ions in sulfuric acid medium and implications for copolymer synthesis. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 6713-6717. doi: 10.1039/C4CP05693K

Jan K. Szymanski and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2014). Straightforward Synthesis Route to Polymersomes with Simple Molecules as Precursors. Langmuir. 30, 11267-11271. doi:10.1021/la502806

Rabih Makki, Alberto P. Muñuzuri, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2014). Periodic Perturbation of Chemical Oscillators: Entrainment and Induced Synchronization. Chemistry: A European Journal20(44), 14213-14217 doi:10.1002/chem.201403647

Tereza Pereira de Souza and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2014). Entrapment in giant polymersomes of an inorganic oscillatory chemical reaction and resulting chemo-mechanical coupling. Chem. Commun. 50, 8970-8973. doi:10.1039/C4CC02321H

Fred Cooper, Gourab Ghoshal and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2014). Effects of intrinsic noise on a cubic autocatalytic reaction-diffusion system. Phys. Rev. E 89, 062127. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.89.062127

David S. A. Simakov and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2013). Effect of Noise Correlation on Noise-Induced Oscillation Frequency in the Photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction in a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor. J. Phys. Chem. A. 117(51), 13999-14005. doi:10.1021/jp409033j

Fred Cooper, Gourab Ghoshal and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2013). Composite Bound States and Broken U(1) Symmetry in the Chemical-Master-Equation Derivation of the Gray-Scott Model. Phys. Rev. E. 88, 042926. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.88.042926

Michal Stich, Gourab Ghoshal and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2013). Parametric Pattern Selection in a Reaction-Diffusion Model. PLoS ONE 8(10), e77337. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0077337

David S. A. Simakov and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2013). Noise Induced Oscillations and Coherence Resonance in a Generic Model of the Nonisothermal Chemical Oscillator. Sci. Rep. 3doi:10.1038/srep02404

Fred Cooper, Gourab Ghoshal, Alec Pawling, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2013). Internal Composite Bound States in Deterministic Reaction Diffusion Models. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 044101. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.044101

James L. Friar, Terrance Goldman, and Juan Pérez-Mercader (2012). Genome Sizes and the Benford Distribution. PLoS ONE 7(5), e36624. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036624 Santa Fe Institute Press Release

Víctor Parro, Graciela de Diego-Castilla, José A. Rodríguez-Manfredi, Luis A. Rivas, Yolanda Blanco-López, Eduardo Sebastián, Julio Romeral, Carlos Compostizo, Pedro L. Herrero, Adolfo García-Marín, Mercedes Moreno-Paz, Miriam García-Villadangos, Patricia Cruz-Gil, Verónica Peinado, Javier Martín-Soler, Juan Pérez-Mercader, and Javier Gómez-Elvira (2011). SOLID3: A Multiplex Antibody Microarray-Based Optical Sensor Instrument for In Situ Life Detection in Planetary Exploration. Astrobiology 11(1). doi:10.1089/ast.2010.0501