Santa Clara University

Dr. Ron Zuckermann speaking on "Bioinspired Polymers as Nanoscale Building Materials"

Friday, October 9, 2009, 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Alumni Science 120

Abstract:

Peptoids are a novel class of non-natural biopolymer based on an N-substituted glycine backbone that are ideally suited for nanomaterials research.  This bioinspired material has many unique properties that bridge the gap between proteins and bulk polymers.  Like proteins, they are a sequence-specific heteroploymer, capable of folding into specific shapes and exhibiting potent biological activities; and like bulk polymers they are chemically and biologically stable and relatively cheap to make.  Peptoids are efficiently assembled via automated solid-phase synthesis from hundreds of chemically diverse building blocks allowing the rapid generation of huge combinatorial libraries.  This provides an ideal platform to discover nanostructured materials capable of protein-like structure and function.

Dr. Zuckermann will be in the DS 103 from 3:15-3:50 pm to meet with students.