Proteinoid

Proteinoids, or thermal proteins, are protein-like, often cross-linked molecules formed inorganically from amino acids. Definition of proteinoids, slightly altered from Haykawa et al. (1967): "macromolecular preparations of mean molecular weights in the thousands containing most of the twenty amino acids found in protein hydrolyzates. Although these polymers have other properties of contemporary protein as well, identity with the latter is not a necessary inference".Some theories of abiogenesis propose that proteinoids were a precursor to the first living cells.