“Light Directed Molecular Evolution: Rational design, 1 million molecules at a time”
-pdf

Abstract: The convergence of four fields, molecular evolution, nanotechnology, high throughput synthesis, and large scale computing suggests a new approach to designing chemical functionality.  With the development of the DNA chip industry, came the realization that millions of specific molecules could be made at particular positions on a chip and probed.  This has opened up the door for computer controlled, massively parallel synthesis of chemical libraries containing millions of molecules, each of which can be designed individually.  We have been developing the tools to generalize the chemistries involved in this process, automate both the synthesis and analysis of the chemical arrays, and utilize this approach to synthesize and screen for chemicals with novel functionalities denovo.  These chemical functionalities are then the building blocks for assembly of complex nanoscale systems that may someday rival the molecular machines that exist in biology.