Chemists Find Biological Molecules That Can Switch "Handedness"

A new study led by Virgil Percec, the P. Roy Vagelos Professor of Chemistry, has led to the discovery of a class of molecules that can produce a double helix more consistent and more highly ordered than that of DNA, despite being made of a random mix of left- and right-"handed" building blocks. Before now scientists had thought such structures could only be made of entirely left- or right-handed molecules.

The ability to form such structures out of a mix of parts also has implications for industrial chemistry, opening doors to simpler techniques of making stable plastics, new ways of storing data, and better kinds of photovoltaic cells and light-emitting diodes.

Also contributing to the study were members of Percec’s lab: Cécile Roche, Hao-Jan Sun, Pawaret Leowanawat, Benjamin E. Partridge, Mihai Peterca, Daniela A. Wilson and Margaret E. Prendergast, as well as Paul Heiney, a professor of physics and astronomy. The Penn scientists collaborated with researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science in Wako, Japan; the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany; and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. The results were published in Nature Chemistry.

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