Organic Seminar - Pavel Anzenbacher

The Organic Seminar Series presents: Pavel Anzenbacher
Bowling Green State University
Hosts: Jonathan Sessler and Eric Anslyn
Title: One Ring to Rule Them All: Self-Organizing Receptors and Sensors for Phosphate Anions
Refreshments served at 3:15pm
Location: WEL 2.122

In this talk, we will discuss our recent efforts focused on the design of self-organized receptors and sensors. Chemical sensors generate analyte-specific information originating from binding and signal transduction events. In the past, the leading theory for the design of receptors and corresponding sensors was the lock & key theory, inspired by the specific interaction between the enzymes and substrates. This approach, while most appropriate for sensing small amounts of analytes of strategic importance, has key limitations: Each analyte requires a selective sensor (one-for-one limitation) and cannot address unknown analytes or “close matches” (cannot extrapolate). To overcome this limitation and the hardship associated with synthesizing selective sensors, array-based sensors comprising multiple cross-reactive (less selective) sensor elements are used. Conventional wisdom suggests that such arrays, because of the “lower recognition quality and selectivity” of the sensors, should be composed of a larger number of such sensors forming the array. In this presentation, we will examine if this assumption is correct and the avenues to escape the “one-for-one” limitation. Specifically, we will explore methods for the design of a molecular receptors and sensors capable of differentiation of many phosphate-type analytes. We will also discuss some of the fundamentals of host-guest association and discuss the role of Enthalpy and Entropy in molecular association in aqueous media and the role Enthalpy-Entropy Compensation as it informs molecular design of artificial receptors.