Molecular Design and Evolution:
Where Chemistry Meets Biology for Innovative Discovery and Application
The true magic of life
It can be found in the conversion of one-dimensional information (the G’s, A’s, T’s and C’s of inherited nucleic acid sequences) into three-dimensional protein molecules exhibiting extraordinarily complex folded structures, assemblies and functions. Working together in myriad combinations, honed by millions of years of evolution inside an almost endless variety of organisms, these molecules carry out the chemistry necessary for all life on our planet.
It doesn’t end with biology
Groundbreaking technological breakthroughs in almost every field await our ability to truly harness the folding, assembly and precise function of very large and complex molecular systems. Imagine a world in which all commercial chemical synthesis is based on recyclable starting materials, carried out by highly efficient recyclable catalysts in water, generating no byproducts or waste. Imagine entirely new generations of therapeutics, unlike any in nature, but with designed specificity and catalytic effectiveness that can only come from using molecules as large and complex as the molecules they will encounter in a patient’s body.
For over 30 years
Our laboratory has remained on the forefront of understanding how to imagine, create, manipulate, evolve and study large functional molecules and assemblies, both human-designed and natural proteins, with three-dimensional structures and functions encoded in their covalent and non-covalent connections.
