Distinguished Guest Lectures
Supramolecular Chemistry:
Some Contributions to Life Sciences
Jean-Marie LEHN
Collège de France, 11, Place Marcelin Berthelot, Paris and
ISIS, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg
 Molecular chemistry has developed a wide range of very powerful procedures for building ever more complicated molecules from atoms linked by covalent bonds. Beyond molecular chemistry lies supramolecular chemistry which aims at constructing highly complex chemical systems from components held together by intermolecular forces.
Numerous receptors capable of selectively binding specific substrates have been developed. They perform molecular recognition which rests on the molecular information stored in the interacting species. Suitably functionalized receptors may perform supramolecular catalysis and selective transport processes . In combination with polymolecular organisation, recognition opens ways towards the design of molecular and supramolecular devices based on functional (photoactive, electroactive, ionoactive, etc.) components.
Supramolecular chemistry has relied on more or less preorganized molecular receptors for effecting such molecular recognition, catalysis and transport processes. A step beyond consists in the design of systems undergoing self-organization , i.e. systems capable of spontaneously generating well-defined supramolecular architectures by self-assembly from their components. Self-organization processes may be directed via the molecular information stored in the covalent framework of the components and read out at the supramolecular level through specific interactions. They thus represent the operation of programmed chemical systems . Top of Page
A number of investigations have been performed at the interface between supramolecular chemistry and biology. They concern developments in areas such as : optical sensing of biomolecular recognition, medical diagnostics based on photonics molecular devices, modified liposomes bearing recognition groups (recosomes), dynamic combinatorial chemistry for drug research, gene transfer methodology, self-assembly processes. Some selected achievements in these areas will be presented. They will serve to illustrate the close relationship between supramolecular chemistry and life sciences.
General references
- Lehn, J.-M., Supramolecular Chemistry: Concepts and Perspectives , VCH Weinheim, 1995 .
- Lehn, J.-M., "Supramolecular Chemistry/Science – Some Conjectures and Perspectives", in Supramolecular Chemistry: Where It Is and Where It Is Going (R. Ungaro, E. Dalcanale, eds.), Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1999 , pp. 287-304.
- Lehn, J.-M., " Toward complex matter : Supramolecular chemistry and self-organization" , Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2002 , 99 , 4763.
- Lehn, J.-M., " Toward self-organization and complex matter " , Science, 2002 , 295 , 2400.
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