Proteinoid

Proteinoids, or thermal proteins, are protein-like, often cross-linked molecules formed abiotically from amino acids. A slightly altered definition of proteinoids is from Hayakawa 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".