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SUMMARY:Artificial chemistries: From designing matter to mimicking life

 
 - Dr Zorana Zeravcic\, ESPCI Paris PSL Research University
DTSTART:20240117T143000Z
DTEND:20240117T153000Z
UID:TALK199624@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lisa Masters
DESCRIPTION:Biology is a discipline studying life-as-we-know-it: life on e
 arth\, based on carbon chemistry. Even though it is the result of millenni
 a of evolution through natural selection\, there is no reason to believe t
 hat this form of flora and fauna around us is the only possible ‘solutio
 n'\, leading to one of the fundamental obstacles in theoretical biology: h
 ow can one establish general theories of life when only one instance of it
  is available to us? The field of Artificial life — essentially a synthe
 tic approach to biology — is trying to bridge the gap by exploring life-
 as-it-could-be. The reactions and types of molecules we observe in living 
 systems\, however\, can constrain and make the exploration difficult. We t
 herefore turn to artificial chemistries that study and explore 'chemical' 
 reactions as they could be imagined. In an artificial chemistry\, one star
 ts with reactants\, i.e.\, atoms\, that follow certain interaction rules w
 e prescribe. This leads to a combinatorial space of possible structures\, 
 i.e.\, molecules\, that goes beyond what we know in the chemistry we live 
 in. We then define how the molecules interact (this can be whatever one wi
 shes)\, leading to the dynamics in this vast combinatorial space. Even tho
 ugh mostly computational\, with fast developments of subfields in (bio)che
 misty such as supramolecular chemistry and DNA nanotechnology\, experiment
 al realizations of artificial chemistries are not so far fetched anymore. 
 I will discuss our recent work on self-assembly of particles into supracol
 loidal complexes through programmable folding\, and show experimental real
 izations of colloidal foldamers - our the first step toward realization of
  complex architectures. 
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry
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