Welcome to the Sahai Group

Our research focuses on the fundamental physical-chemical interactions between biological molecules or cells and mineral surfaces in processes relevant to the origins of life and bone biomineralization. We use a range of experimental, spectroscopic, cell culture and computational approaches to address specific questions in these areas of research.

Group News

May 14, 2024

Exploring the Depths: How Iron Snow Could Unlock the Secrets of Life on Europa

The study provides on a new model for supporting life in the ocean of Europa with a high productivity metabolism (i.e., dissimilatory iron reduction) by the “iron snow “ mechanism based on acid mine drainage pit lakes on Earth. The model provides a much wider diversity of habitable ecological niches and much higher productivity than previous studies had suggested, which focused mainly on low-productivity metabolisms, such as methanogenesis and sulfate reduction, which we also include in our model. The greater range of ecological niches combined with the greater primary productivity supported by the iron snow model increase the chances of life-detection on Europa.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2316452121

https://astrobiology.com/2024/04/bioenergetics-of-iron-snow-fueling-life-on-europa.html

https://www.saganet.org/articles/astrobiology-revealed-16

iya2 December 23, 2021

Prof Sahai named among world’s 2% of scientists

Group PI Professor Nita Sahai was one of thirty-five current UA faculty members named among world’s top 2% of scientists based on recent study published by Stanford University.

tnamani February 21, 2020

Congratulations to Jiadong Chen for successfully completing his Formal Seminar!

tnamani January 15, 2020

New group member alert: Segun just joined as a post-doctoral researcher.

tnamani November 12, 2019

Congratulations on your graduation, Dr. Putu Ustriyana!

pu4 October 21, 2019

Steven and Punam’s paper is now published.

The paper titled “Bacterial Membrane Selective Antimicrobial Peptide-Mimetic Polyurethanes: Structure–Property Correlations and Mechanisms of Action” is now on ACS Materials Letters.

Find out more...