Cooperativity and recognition in bioinspired self-organized molecules

Singleton, Michael L. [UCL]

Advances in synthetic chemistry have, arguably, allowed chemists to compete with Nature for the synthesis of complex natural products. However, when it comes to controlling cascades of interactions, harnessing multiple cooperative effects to accelerate catalysis or the design of receptors that selectively discriminate between highly similar chemical species, synthetic chemistry has a long way to go to match the efficiency of biological systems. Closing this gap requires both a better understanding of the above processes, as well as the development of new molecular systems capable of performing them. In biology the precise placement of functional groups needed for controlling these interactions comes from the self-organization and self-assembly of simpler units or sequences of building blocks into permanently or transiently stable structures. By mimicking this approach for the synthesis of new molecular assemblies or receptors, our group has been able to develop a range of complex molecular architectures for studying cooperative interactions and recognition. This talk will discuss the above concepts and approach, using three different systems synthesized in our lab to exemplify these ideas.