Chirality and Chirality Recognition

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An object is chiral if its mirror image is non-superposable onto itself. Nearly all important biological molecules are chiral and the associated biological functions rely on their chirality and their ability to recognize each other specifically. Using cutting-edge spectroscopic tools and high level theoretical modeling, we study how chiral molecules recognize each other and their surroundings using a number of prototype molecular systems in the gas phase, at metal clusters, and in solution. In particular, the two ambitious spectroscopic instrument developments proposed will allow us to characterize important aspects of such recognition processes in chiral ligand-metal clusters and in proteins in unprecedented new detail. The research insights gained will be valuable, for example, in establishing new reliable methods for the determination of chirality of a chiral compound, such as a chiral drug, and in rational drug design.