Isotomics develops and uses cutting-edge analytical techniques to understand the patterns of abundance and distribution of isotopes in natural molecules. These measurements have application in a variety of fields, including biomedicine, chemical synthesis, forensics and petroleum exploration.
Our founding application is to measure the amount of excess 13C-2H “clumps” — two rare isotopes in the same molecule — in methane. This clumping, or nonrandom distribution, varies as a function of the temperature at which the molecule formed and equilibrated.
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John Eiler, Ph.D. is the Robert Sharp Professor of Geology and Geochemistry at Caltech. His research group first invented the concept of “clumped isotope thermometry” with application to carbonate minerals in the early 2000’s, launching a subdiscipline of geochemistry.
Alex Sessions, Ph.D. is a Professor of Geobiology and Geochemistry at Caltech since 2003. His specialty is the development and application of stable isotope measurements of organic molecules to biogeochemical studies.
Other members of the founding team include Nami Kitchen and Richard Weil.