2020 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Origin of Enzymes: Function and Structure of Hyperbranched Polymers
| Project/Area Number |
17K01943
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
ママジャノフ イリーナ 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 特任教授 (80776261)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | hyperbranched polymer / polyester / wet-dry cycle / smart material / protoenzyme / biomimetic catalysis / chemical evolution / origin of life |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The field of the origin of life is highly focused on the synthesis of biological building blocks, small and macromolecules. While these systems are highly evolved and adapted to nascent biology, they are hard to synthesize and derive function under prebiotic conditions. It is more reasonable to assume that different molecules comprised the early life and prebiotic systems. This project explored one such highly likely system - hyperbranched polyesters. The research in the last several years has successfully explored the chemical evolution of hyperbranched polyesters under wet-dry cycling conditions, their catalytic biomimetic function, and a possible transition between the polyesters to biological peptides.
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