Sandra Pizzarello | |
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| Born | (1933-04-24)24 April 1933 Venice, Italy |
| Died | 24 October 2021(2021-10-24) (aged 88) |
| Alma mater | University of Padua |
| Occupation | Biochemist |
| Employer | Arizona State University |
| Website | webapp4 |
Sandra Pizzarello (24 April 1933 – 24 October 2021) was an Italian biochemist known for her co-discovery ofamino acidenantiomeric excess incarbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Her research interests concerned the characterization of meteoriticorganic compounds in elucidating theevolution of planetaryhomochirality. Pizzarello was a project collaborator and co-investigator for theNASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), the president of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (2014-2017), and anemerita professor atArizona State University (ASU).
Sandra Pizzarello was born inVenice,Italy on 24 April 1933. In 1955, she graduatedsumma cum laude from theUniversity of Padua earning herDoctor of Biological Sciences degree under her adviser Professor Roncato. Pizzarello went on to work as a research associate developing tranquilizers for Farmitalia Research Laboratories in the Department of Neuropharmacology. Over the course of several years, Pizzarello transitioned from research to raising a family. Following a career opportunity for her husband, an aeronautical engineer and computer scientist, she moved her family toPhoenix, Arizona in 1970.
Once Pizzarello's youngest of four children finished primary school, her focus returned to her career after a decade away fromscientific research. She audited a graduatebiochemistry seminar course atASU where she met ProfessorJohn Read Cronin, future co-discoverer ofamino acidenantiomeric excess inmeteorites. Due to her outstanding performance in the course, she was offered a job to work with Cronin at the university as a research professor in analyzing the recently recoveredMurchison meteorite.
Sandra Pizzarello died on 24 October 2021, at the age of 88.[1][2]
Sandra Pizzarello's research over the last forty years involved the analysis oforganic compounds in severalcarbonaceous chondrites, particularlymolecular,chiral, andisotopic characterization ofamino acids. Because the formation of these organic-rich meteorites pre-date theorigin of life, they had been under investigation as potential sites of primalorganic compounds which could shed light onabiogenesis, specifically the origin of biologicalhomochirality.[3] Such studies, however, had been inconclusive until 1997 when Cronin and Pizzarello detected 7-9% L-enantiomeric excesses of three abiological amino acids while analyzing theMurchison meteorite.[3]
Given Earth's history of meteoric impacts and the observation that meteors contain an excess of the biologically relevant L-stereoisomer of certainamino acids, Pizzarello studied the effect of meteoriticamino acids inenantiomeric excess on the formation of otherbiological molecules.[4] In one study, Pizzarello found that nonracemic solutions of abiologicalisovaline andproteinogenicalanine can direct the condensation ofglycolaldehyde to produce nonracemic solutions ofthreose anderythrose via analdol reaction concluding thatamino acids can act asasymmetric catalysts incarbohydrate synthesis.[4] These findings support the origin of life hypothesis that homochirality originated prior to life and fromextraterrestrial origins.[4] However, Pizzarello's theoretical inquiries intocosmochemical evolution remain debated based on suspect analytical evidence of meteoriticenantiomeric excesses.[5][6][7]
Authority control databases: Academics |
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