David W. Deamer

Deamer's father, also David, worked at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, California, during and after World War II while his mother Zena cared for Deamer and his two brothers, Richard and John. In 1952, the family moved to Ohio, where the three brothers attended Westerville High School. In 1957, Deamer submitted his research on self-organizing protozoa to the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and was among the 40 winners who were invited to Washington DC that year. He was awarded a full scholarship to Duke University, where he completed a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1961. Deamer earned a Ph.D. in Physiological Chemistry at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1965 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1965 to 1967. == Academic career ==

He began his academic career at the University of California, Davis, serving as a professor from 1967 to 1994. In 1994, he joined the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he became a research professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry. He later co- founded the Department of Biomolecular Engineering and served as its chair from 2003 to 2006. Deamer has held visiting scientist positions at the University of Bristol, the Weizmann Institute, and the Australian National University. == Research ==

As a young professor at UC Davis, Deamer continued to work with electron microscopy, revealing for the first time particles related to functional ATPase enzymes within the membranes of sarcoplasmic reticulum. Nanopore Sequencing In 1993, he and Dan Branton initiated a research collaboration with John Kasianowitz at NIST to explore this possibility with the hemolysin channel, and in 1996 published the first paper demonstrating that nanopore sequencing may be feasible. He demonstrated that amphiphilic molecules found in meteorites can self-assemble into membrane- like structures, offering insights into the potential precursors to life on Earth. His experiments with hydration-dehydration cycles revealed pathways for the encapsulation of polymers in primitive vesicles, providing a possible mechanism for the emergence of protocells. == Selected publications ==