Four billion years ago, Earth was an inhospitable place: hot, volcanically active, and at times exposed to intense radiation. And yet, from this primordial soup emerged the first building blocks of life. What role did light play in that process? 

That is the question Corinna Kufner is exploring. Since April 2026, the physicist has been Professor of Photonic Abiogenesis at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. In late 2024, she had already moved from Harvard University to Jena to establish her own junior research group at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT). Using ultrafast spectroscopy, Kufner investigates how UV radiation may have triggered and influenced chemical reactions on the early Earth. Her research bringstogether two fields that have rarely been combined: origins-of-life research and photonic technologies. 

For a long time, the chemical processes of early Earth were studied mainly in the absence of light and using highly concentrated starting materials. In reality, however, molecules on Earth’s surface would have been repeatedly exposed to intensesunlight. Without a protective ozone layer, high-energy UV light reached them directly. This is where Kufner’s research begins: On the early Earth, UV light may have acted as a chemical filter. 

“In my doctoral research, I found that sunlight not only damages genetic material, but can also initiate processes that help repair it,” says Corinna Kufner. “In other words, sunlight can actively repair damage in the genome.” This observation became thestarting point for a fundamental question: What role did light play in chemical evolution? 

Recent studies suggest that UV radiation may have influenced the selection of early genetic building blocks. Some molecules broke down quickly under radiation, while others proved more stable and may therefore have had a better chance ofbecoming part of early chemical evolution. Light, then, may not only have served as a source of energy. It may also have helped shape the earliest stages in the development of life. 

From Harvard to Jena 

Kufner’s scientific path began in Munich and, after her doctorate, led her to Harvard University. There, she broadened her perspective beyond Earth: Could processes similar to those in Earth’s primordial soup also occur on other planets? “I am drivenby the question of why life developed in the way we know it today,” says Corinna Kufner. “Are we alone in the universe? Could life have formed elsewhere under similar conditions?” 

Corinna Kufner’s first encounter with Jena came through the international career workshop “Women in Photonics” at Leibniz IPHT. The event brings early-career women scientists from around the world to Jena to foster scientific exchange and open upcareer opportunities in photonics. For Leibniz IPHT, the workshop is also an important way to connect with international talent early on and attract researchers to Jena as a science hub. 

A few years after that first contact, a new scientific opportunity emerged: Corinna Kufner decided to move from Harvard University to Jena. The decisive factor was the chance to build her first independent research group and to combine photonicmethods with questions about the origin of life. 

“In Jena, photonics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and data science are closely interconnected,” says Corinna Kufner. “For my research, I have found an interdisciplinary environment here that makes it possible to combine method development withfundamental research — and that has supported me strongly from the very beginning.” 

Since 2025, Kufner has led the junior research group “Photonic Abiogenesis” at Leibniz IPHT. The group is funded through the Nexus Program of the Carl Zeiss Foundation and receives additional support from the Leibniz Association. At Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Kufner will also be involved in teaching. Planned courses include classes in the master’s program Chemistry of Materials, as well as a seminar on origins of life. 

Experiments on the “Primordial Soup” 

In the laboratory, Kufner’s team simulates conditions on the early Earth. Using ultrafast spectroscopic methods, the researchers make even extremely short-lived intermediate states visible — processes that exist only for billionths of a second and canhardly be observed with conventional methods. These fleeting states may be crucial to understanding how simple molecules gradually gave rise to complex, functional structures. 

“We will conduct experiments on the primordial soup to understand which photochemical processes took place there,” Kufner explains. Her approach combines prebiotic photochemistry with ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. The goal is to identifynew light-driven reaction pathways and to better understand how light may have contributed to the emergence of biological functionality. 

Insights for Medicine and Space Exploration 

The findings reach beyond fundamental research. The researchers are studying the same basic photochemical processes that also play a role in modern applications — for example, when light is used to selectively modify, activate, or destroy molecules. Such mechanisms are relevant, among other areas, to photodynamic cancer therapy, in which light is used to damage tumor cells in a targeted way. 

At the same time, the research provides important insights for the search for life beyond Earth. Understanding the UV conditions under which biomolecules remain stable or break down can help scientists assess which planets may be capable ofsupporting the development of life — and which chemical traces future space probes should look for. 

“What drives me is the desire to understand how things work,” says Corinna Kufner. “Why did certain biomolecules form in precisely this way? What can we contribute in the laboratory to better understand such processes on other planets? And howcan we use these insights for the future?”