Prof. Dr. Douglas Philp: In through the Out door – Creating responsive and dynamic networks using synthetic replicators

In through the Out door – Creating responsive and dynamic networks using synthetic replicators   Douglas Philp   School of Chemistry and EaStCHEM, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9ST, UK   E-mail: d.philp@st-andrews.ac.uk     The development and deployment of systems capable of molecular replication can deliver a synthetic machinery that is capable of directing and managing its own synthesis and participate in an organized hierarchy by interacting with other replicating systems. In this way, efficient protocols that allow replication, organization and emergent behaviour can be created within a wholly synthetic chemical context. This approach to predetermined dynamic behaviour has been termed “systems chemistry”.   Our lab has developed several molecular systems that are capable of replication by a variety of mechanisms. The ability of these individual replicating systems to function as modules within more complex reaction networks is related to their ability to bind reagents selectively and to accelerate the reactions between them. Kinetic selection based on the autocatalytic or cross-catalytic efficiencies of instructional templates is, however, unlikely to be sufficient to achieve the goals set out above.   The development and deployment of systems capable of molecular replication can deliver a synthetic machinery that is capable of directing and managing its own synthesis and participate in an organized hierarchy by interacting with other replicating systems. In this way, efficient protocols that allow replication, organization and emergent behaviour can be created within a wholly synthetic chemical context. This approach to predetermined dynamic behaviour has been termed “systems chemistry”.   Our lab has developed several molecular systems that are capable of replication by a variety of mechanisms. The ability of these individual replicating systems to function as modules within more complex reaction networks is related to their ability to bind reagents selectively and to accelerate the reactions between them. Kinetic selection based on the autocatalytic or cross-catalytic efficiencies of instructional templates is, however, unlikely to be sufficient to achieve the goals set out above.   Dynamic covalent chemistry offers an opportunity to develop synthetic protocols that incorporate a degree of error checking through the dynamic, reversible association of the components of a target structure through covalent bonds. The limited number of organic reactions that form covalent bonds that are also completely reversible under mild conditions can be challenging. However, the coupling of dynamic covalent reaction networks to replication processes offers an attractive route to reconfigurable reaction systems that are capable of responding to instructional templates.