Synergistic biopolymer co-assembly regulating the emergence of translation and replication in synthetic networks

Overview. Biopolymers have served as archetypal guides for materials development for decades, and we now propose to exploit the next level of order, to extend the dynamic and mutually interdependent networks of peptides and nucleic acids regulating molecular evolution to new materials. We have now collectively achieved the first critical steps in creating mutualistic co-dependent replication networks with synthetic polymer congeners and our approach to form synthetic molecular scaffolds that build on the extensive data available from biology's informational networks reveals processes by which complex and environmentally responsive mesoscale informational assemblies can emerge. Detailed structural analysis, combined with empirical and simulation kinetic models, will optimize cross-catalysis, feedback, and growth, emulating the critical functions achieved with Nature's ribonuclear-protein assemblies, yet extending these molecular constraints to new and more diverse molecular scaffolds. Achieving this goal will transition the critical threshold for the construction of evolvable synthetic materials to new orthogonal functions related to information storage, propagation, and possibly, to constraints on how we search for new evolvable materials on Earth and beyond.

Intellectual Merit. The design of nanoscale materials benefits from structural investigations and functional insights provided by the biological supramolecular machinery that performs the chemical, electrical, and mechanical functions associated with cellular metabolism, motion, energy capture and self-healing. These functions have emerged from self-organizing materials that create the potential for the network to profit, or learn, from their environment. Ours is a first step of expanding supramolecular assembly into self-organizing networks for new functional materials. Just as the emergence of the ribosome provided a critical Darwinian threshold for our biosphere, we see this set of studies as demonstrating the use of mutualistic polymers and supramolecular catalysts for the creation of intelligent materials. This work will expand the analytic and modeling methods available for dynamic chemical systems and the cross catalytic networks will serve as foundational for a synthetic biology that will ultimately lead to evolutionary strategies for the discovery and optimization of functional materials able to interface with critical challenges our existing biosphere now faces.

Broader Impacts. From Internet-driven globalization to the discovery of thousands of Earth-like planets in our Milky Way, the last decade has seen our world grow ever smaller. Such rapid changes create great apprehension about humanity's place in the universe and offer an ever-increasing role for research and education across all levels of engagement. The growth of systems chemistry as a discipline will continue to bridge our diverse scientific communities, providing tremendous opportunity for exploration, questioning, and learning in innovative and constructive STEAM venues. In the spirit of an international “sandbox”, we will share ideas, exploit the opportunities of an international collaboration, and as we have done with the initiation of a new GRC on Systems Chemistry, open discussions on smart biomaterials in the open atrium of the Science Commons at Emory and across the richly diverse communities of Beersheba, Israel. We are now positioned to unify and nucleate discussions, vertically across scholarly experiences and horizontally between disciplines, empowering innovation in research and teaching, and engaging our local, national, and international communities through a playful format empowering all participants to share their ideas in classes, research discussions, and theater performances. The hub for these informative discussions will occur throughout the week of the annual Atlanta Film Festival (http://atlantasciencefestival.org/) across Atlanta and spread through scientific and unique theatrical representations both nationally and internationally.