Biomimetic and Polymeric Catalysis in Water

水中的仿生和聚合物催化

• 批准号: 0948318
• 负责人: Ronald Breslow
• 金额: $ 49.5万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-01 至 2013-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0948318&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Biomimetic; Polymeric; Catalysis; Water

This award by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division supports the efforts of Professor Ronald Breslow of Columbia University to study catalysis within the interiors of macromolecules. There are many advantages to these enzyme mimics, including the ability to organize well-defined three-dimensional structures around the reacting species. Professor Breslow and his group prepare polymers containing imidazole sidechains that are even more effective than the best previously-studied polyamines. The group also studies new polymers, including some with very highly defined sizes and shapes. These new polymers are used as mimics for biological reactions that use thiamine pyrophosphate as a coenzyme in processes that are central to life. The catalysts are used for cleaving RNA.In a second project, Professor Breslow and his group develops evidence about how amino acids, nucleosides, and sugars form on prebiotic earth. This work addressed the formation of chiral structures, one of the great unsolved mysteries in science. A major goal of modern chemistry is to be able to predict the properties of unknown compounds reliably. Professor Breslow's research group and collaborators from Columbia University's Chemistry Department develop computational methods to quantitatively predict the extent to which reactions that establish handedness perform. Their methods predict unknown chemistries that could lead to useful synthetic processes for manufacturing medicinal compounds. This research program show how reactions perform in water taking advantage of hydrophobic binding while avoiding the problems that water can cause when it binds to catalytic groups and substrates. The artificial enzyme systems expand the field of chemistry to include processes in which multiple components are spontaneously bound to a catalyst, as happens with natural enzymes. Water is an environmentally benign solvent and is of great interest as a component of Green Chemistry.

该奖项由化学部化学结构、动力学和机制项目颁发，以支持哥伦比亚大学罗纳德·布雷斯罗教授对大分子内部催化作用的研究。这些酶模拟物有许多优点，包括在反应物质周围组织明确的三维结构的能力。布雷斯洛教授和他的团队制备了含有咪唑侧链的聚合物，这种聚合物比以前研究过的最好的多胺更有效。该小组还研究新的聚合物，包括一些尺寸和形状非常明确的聚合物。这些新的聚合物被用作生物反应的模拟物，这些生物反应在生命的核心过程中使用硫胺素焦磷酸作为辅酶。这些催化剂用于切割RNA。在第二个项目中，布雷斯洛教授和他的团队研究了氨基酸、核苷和糖是如何在益生元地球上形成的证据。这项工作解决了手性结构的形成，这是科学界最大的未解之谜之一。现代化学的一个主要目标是能够可靠地预测未知化合物的性质。布雷斯洛教授的研究小组和哥伦比亚大学化学系的合作者开发了计算方法来定量预测建立手性的反应的程度。他们的方法预测了未知的化学物质，这些化学物质可能导致制造药用化合物的有用合成过程。本研究项目展示了如何利用疏水结合在水中进行反应，同时避免了水与催化基团和底物结合时可能引起的问题。人工酶系统扩展了化学领域，包括多种成分自发结合到催化剂上的过程，就像天然酶一样。水是一种对环境无害的溶剂，是绿色化学的重要组成部分。