Synthetic Information Molecules

长期以来，大自然一直激励着化学家们，让他们瞥见组织良好的分子系统可能具有的令人敬畏的复杂程度和功能。相比之下，开始出现的合成分子机器的原型仍然非常原始。可以说，自然界中最重要的分子是核酸：在生物学中，它被用来通过模板定向合成来存储和复制遗传信息；单链形式作为化学转化的催化剂；双链结构已经被广泛应用于纳米技术的可编程建筑材料。核酸的信息内容似乎在广泛的领域提供了通用的解决方案：表面平铺、纳米物体、结构模板、反应模板、基于分子的计算、分子开关、分子行走器等。这些特性目前在任何其他材料中都是无与伦比的，但这项提议的目的是开发新型信息分子，为核酸提供可编程的合成替代品。这项提案中描述的工作计划将利用基于我们目前的知识看起来很有希望的特定系统建立一般原理，但这项工作将为广泛的合成信息聚合物打开大门，这将对未来纳米技术的发展产生重大影响。

Nature has long inspired chemists with glimpses of the awesome levels of sophistication and functionality that are possible with well-organised molecular systems. By comparison, the prototype synthetic molecular machines that are beginning to emerge are still very primitive. Arguably, the most important molecule in Nature is the nucleic acid: in biology, it is used to store and reproduce genetic information via template-directed synthesis; the single-stranded forms function as catalysts for chemical transformations; the double-stranded forms have found widespread applications as programmable building materials for nanotechnology. The information content of nucleic acids appears to offer generic solutions in a wide range of areas: surface tiling, nanoobjects, structure templates, reaction templates, molecule-based calculations, molecular switches, molecular walkers etc. These properties are currently unrivalled in any other material, but the aim of this proposal is to develop new classes of information molecules that will offer a programmable synthetic alternative to the nucleic acids. The programme of work described in this proposal will establish the general principles using specific systems that look promising based on our current knowledge, but this work will open the door to a very wide range of synthetic information polymers that will have a significant impact on the development of future nanotechnology.