The Sydney University Chemical Society with the The University of New South Wales Chemical Society present the second of the 2005 Howard Memorial Lectures at 5.15pm Tuesday 22nd March, 2005 in the Old Main Building, Room 112 University of New South Wales. The speaker will be Prof. M. Reza Ghadiri who will present:
The 2005 Howard Memorial Lectures.
Toward Synthetic Biology: Design and Study of Complex Peptide Networks
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute
What are the fundamental properties that distinguish the chemistry of living systems, which give rise to animate characteristics, from inanimate in vitro chemical transformations? In a living system, the complex blend of nonlinear molecular information transfer processes is thought to bring about a self-sustained coherent self organized chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution. In order to understand and ultimately mimic the properties of living systems, we feel it is necessary to begin defining the basic forms of self-organized chemical networks, how they can be constructed, and how information transfer processes can lead to the expression of emergent properties. In this lecture, in the context of de novo designed catalytic and autocatalytic peptides, I will discuss the construction of simple networks and our progress toward mimicking and understanding some of the basic characteristics of living systems.
Tuesday 22nd March at 5:15pm
Room 112, Old Main Building, UNSW.