Seminars and Special Events

Molecular Recognition and Chirality at the Interface between Crystals and Biology

Lia Addadi
Dorothy and Patrick E. Gorman Chair of Biological Ultrastructure Department of Structural Biology
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Wednesday, August 4, 2004
2:00pm
Technological Institute, Room L251
Evanston Campus

Abstract

An intimate historical and conceptual association exists between crystals and chirality. However, while the understanding of molecular chirality is accurate and comprehensive, still much information is missing in the understanding of the transitions from molecular asymmetry to macroscopic asymmetry, such as in the development of asymmetric crystal morphologies or in recognition at chiral surfaces. We are trying to use the well-established concepts of stereochemistry and chirality, and move to higher length-scales of microns and millimeters, many orders of magnitude larger than the length-scale of molecules. The transfer of chiral information between biological macromolecules and ordered surfaces will be considered through several examples, touching onto biomineralization, cell adhesion and antibody recognition of chiral surfaces.