John D. Sutherland is a chemist at Medical Research Council (UK) (MRC), Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division.In 2009, in an article in Nature, Sutherland announced that he had discovered how nucleotides could have joined to form from natural chemicals and thus create life.In June 2012, Sutherland, along with his former colleague, the chemist Matthew Powner, from University College London, won the Origin of Life Challenge.He received Darwin Medal in 2014 for his novel and convincing work on prebiotic chemistry, in particular his solution to the central problem of nucleoside synthesis.