Corinna Kufner Explores How UV Radiation Shaped Chemical ­Processes on Early Earth – and Its Implications for the Search for Life in Space and Modern Medicine

Four billion years ago, Earth was a harsh and inhospitable place – hot, volcanically active, and exposed to intense radiation. Yet, from this primordial soup, the first biomolecules emerged. What role did light play in this process? Corinna ­Kufner uses ultrafast spectroscopy to investigate how UV radiation triggered chemical reactions, influencing evolution. Her research could not only help us understand the origins of life but also provide groundbreaking insights for medicine, energy production, and space exploration.

In her lab in Jena, Dr. Corinna Kufner sends ultrashort pulses of light onto tiny molecules. She aims to elucidate how UV radiation affects chemical reactions – a process that might have played a critical role on early Earth. “What drives me is the question of why life developed the way it did,” says Kufner. “Are we alone in the universe? Could life have formed elsewhere under similar conditions?”

While many researchers study the origins of life using concentrated chemicals in dark labs, Corinna Kufner focuses on light. On the surface of young Earth, the biomolecules were exposed to sunlight. At Leibniz IPHT, she now aims to investigate how UV light initiated these chemical processes and may have influenced them in a targeted way.

UV Light as the Driver of Evolution

Corinna Kufner’s scientific career began in Munich, where she earned her Ph.D. under Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Zinth. There, she discovered that UV radiation not only damages DNA but can also activate repair mechanisms – a process typically attributed to enzymes (Kufner, C. L. (2018). ­Sequence-selective damage and ­repair of DNA by UV radiation. ­Dissertation, Ludwig Maximilian University of ­Munich). This insight led her to a bigger question: What role did light play in chemical evolution?

After completing her Ph.D., she moved to Harvard University, where she set up her own lab for transient absorption spectroscopy. There, she deepened her research on light-induced chemistry and recognized that these mechanisms could be relevant far beyond Earth. Her collaboration with astronomer Prof. Dr. Dimitar Sasselov, an expert in exoplanets, broadened her perspective: Could similar processes that occurred in Earth’s primordial soup also happen on other planets?

New Junior Research Group

The international career workshop “Women in Photonics” in 2020 served as a catalyst for Corinna Kufner’s move to Leibniz IPHT. Since 2025, Kufner has been building her own junior research group, “Photonic Abiogenesis,” at Leibniz IPHT – funded with 1.5 million euros from the Nexus program of the Carl Zeiss Foundation and additionally supported by the Leibniz Competition of the Leibniz Association. Her projects, UV LiFe and BiUVunction, explore whether UV radiation served not only as an energy source for chemical reactions but also as a selective pressure, allowing certain molecules to survive while others were destroyed.

A New Perspective on the Origin of Life

What makes her approach unique is the connection of two previously separate research fields: Origins of Life research and photonics. “In the Origins of Life field, little research has been done on the mechanisms of photo-induced processes”, says Kufner. “At the same time, the pump-probe spectroscopy community hardly considers the origins of life. I am bringing these two fields together.”
Her interdisciplinary approach combines physics, chemistry, astronomy, geochemistry, and machine learning. Corinna Kufner combines ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy with prebiotic photochemistry. “On early Earth, molecules like RNA, DNA, peptides, and lipids were exposed to sunlight. That exposure could have influenced crucial reaction pathways that we can’t replicate in dark lab experiments,” Kufner explains. She aims to uncover the hidden photochemical mechanisms that took place in Earth’s primordial soup.

Searching for Clues in Space and New Paths for Medicine

Corinna Kufner’s experiments have the potential to extend beyond the study of early Earth. UV radiation also plays a role in modern medicine – for example, in photodynamic cancer therapy, where light is used strategically to destroy tumor cells. Her findings could help develop new light-based treatment strategies. In the study of aging processes, her experiments could provide new insights as well.
Her approach also opens up possibilities for energy production: Photochemical reactions play a key role in the development of efficient photocatalysts that could generate sustainable energy.

“What Drives me is the Wish to Understand”

Kufner’s research aims to uncover the conditions under which life can emerge – and could provide clues for the search for biological signatures within our solar system. Similar processes might have occurred on other planets. Her work could help define new biological traces for space missions – such as for the search for life on Mars, Venus, or the icy moons Europa and Enceladus.

“What Drives me is the wish to understand,” says Corinna Kufner. “Why did certain biomolecules evolve the way they did? Could light ­really have been the key factor? And how can we use these ­insights for the future?”

Original publication: https://doi.org/10.5282/EDOC.22379