A Polymer Chemist's Perspective on Protein Science and Engineering

Abstract: Synthetic polymers and proteins share the essential characteristic of long-chain molecular architecture._ But they differ in important ways; proteins are uniform, often well folded, and evolvable, whereas polymers are heterogeneous and adopt random-coil or partially ordered conformations. Many years ago, we began to try to bridge the gap between synthetic polymers and proteins by using artificial genes to direct the synthesis of artificial proteins, and by creating new amino acids that can be used in cellular protein synthesis._ These developments have provided a basis for new approaches to the design of macromolecular materials and to time-resolved and cell-selective analysis of complex biological processes.

Contact

  Dr. Philip Savage
  psavage@engr.psu.edu
  814-867-5876