Professor K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research Institute and the 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, will offer a chemistry seminar at UC Merced at 3 p.m. Friday in COB 120.
His pioneering work on asymmetric catalysis, which earned him the prestigious award, led to the discovery of general methods to make molecules as single enantiomers – mirror-image molecules that are identical except in how they interact with biological systems.
One example of why the work is so important is that if a pharmaceutical contains both enantiomers, one will work as you want it to and the other can lead to serious side effects. Since 2001, he has dedicated his continued research to the discovery of highly efficient reactions that allow scientists to rapidly put together molecules using an approach he terms click chemistry – building molecules the same way you would put together Legos using blocks that easily hook together.
This approach allows very rapid construction of complex molecules, allowing new vaccines to be discovered, new antibiotics to be found and even allows us to better understand how enzymes in cells work.
Friday’s talk will focus on the newest reactions he has found that can be used in the click-chemistry approach.
The discussion is free and open to anyone.
Contact Professor Jason Hein at jhein2@ucmerced.edu for more information.
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