“From Molecular Lego to Programmable Matter”
Christian Schafmeister, PhD, Temple University, Feynman Prize for Experimental Work
Bricks that make DNA
Bricks that make proteins
Unnatural brick that fold – foldamers ( a field guide to foldamers)
Program their shape
Bis-amino acids (reactive groups) assemble to bis-peptide
Connect with pairs of bonds
New therapeutics and new catalysts
Nanosystems that build nanosystems
2007 roadmaps
Cando runs on Kraken
170,000 lines of C++
Built in lisp scripting language
Molecular lego concept (Stoddart 1992)
Pro4 bis-amino acid monomers
Solution phase oligomer assembly (make hundreds of grams)
Functionalized oligomers (organic letters, synthesis of hexa and penta substituted diketo…) 2010 paper
Take polystyrene beads and assemble molecules on them and make large libraries of them and assemble in parallel.
Broad spectrum antibiotic – a pre assembled hole that open up cell membranes and kill cells
Artificial membrane channels- can filter actinides
Bis-peptide macrocycles
Tyr-Asp / Glu Motif (making catalysts)
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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