S. Furkan Ozturk

Furkan completed his undergraduate degree in physics at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkiye. During his time there, he focused on studying the theory of ultracold dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates using the Hartree-Fock Bogoliubov method. Later, in 2018, he enrolled as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Physics, where his research shifted toward constructing an Erbium quantum gas microscope. After earning his M.A. in experimental atomic, molecular, and optical physics, Furkan changed his research direction to investigate the origins of life on Earth and joined the Sasselov group. During his Ph.D., he was involved in studying the origins of homochirality and the effects of UV light on the chemistry of the prebiotic world.

In his homochirality research, he investigates the role of magnetic surfaces as chiral agents due to a phenomenon known as the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. In his Ph.D. thesis work, by utilizing magnetic surfaces as templates for the asymmetric crystallization of an RNA precursor, Furkan demonstrated a robust way of achieving homochirality in RNA under prebiotic conditions. Moreover, he suggested a plausible pathway for propagating homochirality from D-RNA to L-peptides, thereby addressing the opposite handedness of nucleic acids and peptides in biology. For his Ph.D. work, he was awarded the Goldhaber Prize by the Harvard Physics Department.

He is currently a Kavli-Laukien Fellow, working on the geochemical refinements of his scenario for achieving homochiral chemistry, as well as the effects of chemical heterogeneity and temperature on spin-controlled phenomena. He is also interested in the broader applications of CISS in chemistry and biology.

Publications

5. Ozturk, S. Furkan “A new spin on the origin of biological homochirality” PhD Thesis, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (2024).

4. Ozturk, S. Furkan, Sasselov, Dimitar D. and Sutherland, John D. “The central dogma of biological homochirality: How does chiral information propagate in a prebiotic network?” JCP (2023).

3. Ozturk, S. Furkan, et al. “Chirality-Induced avalanche magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor” Nature Communications (2023).

2. Ozturk, S. Furkan, Liu, Ziwei, Sutherland, John D., Sasselov, Dimitar D. “Origin of biological homochirality by crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetic surface” Science Advances (2023).

1. Ozturk, S. Furkan, and Sasselov, Dimitar D. “On the origins of life’s homochirality: Inducing enantiomeric excess with spin-polarized electrons” PNAS (2022).

Research Highlight

• Magnetism May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry by Quanta Magazine
• Service, Robert. (2023). ‘Breakthrough’ could explain why life molecules are left- or right-handed. Science, 380-6650.
• Greed, S. (2022). The dawn of asymmetry. Nature Reviews Chemistry, 1-1.
• Bloom, B. P., Waldeck, A. R., & Waldeck, D. H. (2022). Homochirality and chiral-induced spin selectivity: A new spin on the origin of life. PNAS, 119(34), e2210505119.

Enantioenriched crystals of ribose-aminooxazoline, an RNA precursor, on a magnetite surface.

Furkan's paper was featured on the cover of The Journal of Chemical Physics!

 Cracking Chirality: The Mystery of Mirror Molecules