A team of chemists at the University of Reading, led by Professor Howard Colquhoun, have designed a system in which a tweezer-like molecule is able to recognise specific monomer sequences in a linear copolymer. As a result, and for the first time ever, sequence-information in a synthetic polymer has been ‘read’ by a mechanism which mirrors one of the processes on which life itself is based.
The discovery is described in two papers: Recognition of polyimide sequence information by a molecular tweezer (H.M. Colquhoun and Z. Zhu, Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 2004, Issue 38, p. 5040) and Principles of sequence-recognition in aromatic polyimides (H.M. Colquhoun, Z. Zhu, C.J. Cardin and Y. Gan, Chemical Communications, 2004, Issue 23, p. 2650). These journals are regarded worldwide as the most important media for the publication of urgent communications on important new developments in the chemical sciences.
Professor Colquhoun and his colleague Dr Zhu designed the ‘tweezer’ so that it binds at particular sites along the polymer chain – namely, at the sequences which complement its own structure most closely. The researchers then used spectroscopic methods to show that the molecular tweezer can bind bind at both adjacent and non-adjacent sites along the polymer chain. From this evidence, the specific sequences present within the copolymer, which is made of several different structural units, could be clearly identified. A full and detailed picture of the way in which the tweezer binds to the polymer chain was finally obtained when Dr Zhu obtained crystals of a complex between the tweezer and a model oligomer and their structure was determined by Dr Cardin and Ms Gan.
Craig Hillsley | alfa
A novel socio-ecological approach helps identifying suitable wolf habitats
17.02.2017 | Universität Zürich
New, ultra-flexible probes form reliable, scar-free integration with the brain
16.02.2017 | University of Texas at Austin
In the field of nanoscience, an international team of physicists with participants from Konstanz has achieved a breakthrough in understanding heat transport
Cells need to repair damaged DNA in our genes to prevent the development of cancer and other diseases. Our cells therefore activate and send “repair-proteins”...
The Fraunhofer IWS Dresden and Technische Universität Dresden inaugurated their jointly operated Center for Additive Manufacturing Dresden (AMCD) with a festive ceremony on February 7, 2017. Scientists from various disciplines perform research on materials, additive manufacturing processes and innovative technologies, which build up components in a layer by layer process. This technology opens up new horizons for component design and combinations of functions. For example during fabrication, electrical conductors and sensors are already able to be additively manufactured into components. They provide information about stress conditions of a product during operation.
The 3D-printing technology, or additive manufacturing as it is often called, has long made the step out of scientific research laboratories into industrial...
Nature does amazing things with limited design materials. Grass, for example, can support its own weight, resist strong wind loads, and recover after being...
Nanometer-scale magnetic perforated grids could create new possibilities for computing. Together with international colleagues, scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have shown how a cobalt grid can be reliably programmed at room temperature. In addition they discovered that for every hole ("antidot") three magnetic states can be configured. The results have been published in the journal "Scientific Reports".
Physicist Dr. Rantej Bali from the HZDR, together with scientists from Singapore and Australia, designed a special grid structure in a thin layer of cobalt in...
13.02.2017 | Event News
10.02.2017 | Event News
09.02.2017 | Event News
20.02.2017 | Materials Sciences
20.02.2017 | Health and Medicine
20.02.2017 | Health and Medicine