Summary
The von Kiedrowski group has been involved for many years in the design and kinetic analysis of chemical self-replicating systems.
A second major line of research is devoted to the programmable self-assembly of three-dimensionally defined nano objects from trisoligos, viz. synthetic three-armed junctions as molecular building blocks.
The group has also been involved in the development of thermostable and monoconjugable gold clusters based on multidentate thioether ligands.
The overarching theme in the von Kiedrowski group is systems chemistry, viz. the quest for a deeper understanding of self-replication phenomena and their integration into dynamic supersystems. Systems chemistry is seen as the vehicle to arrive at programmable and replicatable nanotechnology (nanobots) as well at a better understanding of the origin of life.
Focus Points
What is Systems Chemistry?
Systems chemistry is the joint effort of prebiotic and supramolecular chemistry with computer science from theoretical chemistry, biology, and complex systems research to address a deeper understanding of self-replication and self-reproduction and to tackle dynamic supersystem integration embedding at least one autocatalytic subsystem. It is the bottom-up pendant of systems biology towards synthetic biology.
The origin of life is seen as a major stimulus to organize research but the field is open for chemistries of limited prebiotic plausibility. Subsystems may be classified as genetic, metabolic, or compartiment-building. Pairwise integration into higher organized supersystems is expected to yield the knowledge enabling later the triple integration into minimal chemical cells.
The integration approach will necessarily link to the question of asymmetric autocatalysis and chiral symmetry breaking, while the key challenge is to find the roots of Darwinian evolvability in chemical systems.