Evolvable Process Design (EPD)

本研究的目的在于设计和制造一个可进化的工艺设计（EPD）反应器平台，使“进化”的化学反应可以首次进行调查。这将通过开发一种新的工程方法来设计和建造化学反应器系统来实现，该系统结合了三个关键要素：（1）化学过程系统，（2）反馈/GA管理的控制系统，以及（3）可以可逆地结合在一起的化学构建块。该系统的开发将允许选择具有允许进化的正确特性的化学系统（即，根据应用于系统的适应度景观而交配、产生后代以及生存或死亡的能力）。通过结合这三个关键要素，EPD系统旨在利用基于正在进化的系统/分子/材料的光谱特性的反馈和选择机制。这些反应器将被设计用于研究化学进化，证明这种方法是可行的，然后最终扩展到三个关键领域，包括药物设计，催化发现和新材料发现。这种方法与过程工业具有很大的相关性，因为一旦系统确定了攀登适应度景观的路线，通过对新分子/材料采用可进化的方法，将同时发现最佳过程。换句话说，一旦你有了产品，你就有了过程。这将导致新产品上市时间的数量级变化。该系统将被设计为本质上可扩展和连续的，这意味着生产规模将不是一个问题。除了过程工业，基于反应器的化学进化，有可能启动职业研究，以模拟或重新创建与生命和化学复杂性的出现有关的基本化学过程。

The aim of this research lies in the design and manufacture of an Evolvable Process Design (EPD) reactor platform such that 'evolved' chemical reactions can be investigated for the first time. This will be achieved by developing a novel engineering approach to the design and construction of a chemical reactor system that combines three crucial elements: (1) a chemical process system, (2) a feedback / GA-managed control system, and (3) chemical building blocks that can reversibly bind together. The development of this system will allow the selection of a chemical system that has the correct properties to allow evolution (i.e. ability to mate, produce off- spring, and live or die depending on the fitness landscape applied to the system). By combining these key three elements the EPD-system aims to utilise feedback and selection mechanisms based on spectroscopic properties of the system / molecules / materials being evolved. These reactors will be designed to examine chemical evolution, the proof of principle that this approach is viable and then the eventual extension to three key example areas including drug design, catalysis discovery and new materials discovery. This approach is of great relevance to the process industries since, by adopting an evolvable approach to the new molecules/material once the system identifies the route to climb the fitness landscape, the optimal process will be discovered at the same time. In other words, once you have your product you have your process . This will result in an order of magnitude change in the time-to-market of new products. The system will be designed to be intrinsically scaleable and continuous, meaning that scale of production will not be an issue. In addition to the process industries, reactor-based chemical evolution, has the potential to initiate a career study to simulate, or re-create, the fundamental chemical processes that are related to the emergence of life and complexity in chemistry.