Northwestern Chemistry welcomes Alanna Schepartz from UC Berkeley, hosted by Xiaoyu Zhang.
New molecules from nature’s most sophisticated catalyst
As far as we know, the translational apparatus–the ribosome and its associated translation factors–has evolved for billions of years to perform a single chemical reaction: formation of an amide bond between two α-amino acids brought into proximity by tRNAs within the ribosome active site, the peptidyl transferase center (PTC). This reaction produces sequence-defined polymers of α-amino acids, the molecules we call proteins. In cells, the chemistry possible within the PTC of natural ribosomes includes reactions of more than 200 different non-proteinogenic α-amino- and hydroxy acids and a small number of β-amino and hydroxy acids. But there is a big chemical world beyond β-amino and hydroxy acids. One can imagine three different strategies to expand the chemistry of translation further to generate diverse new-to-nature drug-like molecules and materials with novel backbone architectures. These materials offer opportunities for expanded function, predictable structure, tunable stability, and orthogonal reactivity. This lecture will describe recent progress towards these goals.
Kelly Levander
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