Tibor Ganti a Hungarian chemical engineer developed the idea of the minimal unit of life, the chemoton, that contains a boundary, a metabolism and a template replication system. His recent book, "The Principles of Life" is an excellent read. And Chemoton Theory Volume 1 and 2 is a more detailed exposition by Ganti, but again a wonderful read. The chemoton has been modelled using computer simulation (Bekes, Csendes, (Me) Chrisantha Fernando, Andreea Munteanu and Ricard Sole, Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo). See here for a good review by Andreea Munteanu. A European consortium are trying to make real variants on the chemoton theme (PACE). Spatial models have also been attempted (1), (2), (3) of protocells and simpler replicating spots. There are many open questions about the origin of the first cell that remain to be answered. Could selection at the cell level drive the origin of genes? What organizations of the chemoton are most robust to external perturbation? What organizations can explain the origin of template replication from messy polycondensation reactions? My PhD thesis was on models of the chemoton. Some results have been published, and more are in submission. See here for a review by us.
The mini-project would involve modelling a chemoton using ODEs (ordinary differential equation models integrated numerically) or stochastic models. The project would specifically explore several different chemoton topologies to identify which are competitively superior. An artificial evolution approach would be used to evolve these topologies of the chemoton. This field of study has seen a recent resurgence due to the active experimental interest in these systems, and therefore a journal publication would be expected from a high quality model. An existing stochastic modelling platform has recently been developed in San Sebastian which can be used to conduct the models. Also, very easy to use stochastic modelling platforms are available online (MesoRD).
The student should the enthusiastic about modelling biological and chemical systems, and using models not as "experimental philosophy" typical in artificial life, but as theoretical biology, so that they are actually of use to experimentalists. There is no need for a formal training in biology or chemistry, but good programming skills are essential. Also, the project demands a scholarly approach, the student must engage at an early stage with a range of literature that will be provided, some of which is available in hyperlinks here. Please feel free to come and see me in room 106. This is one of many possible projects on the origin of life. Some talks are downloadable here.