Phase II Funding Approved for the Center for Genetically Encoded Materials

The NSF Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI) program recently approved the phase II funding for the Center for Genetically Encoded Materials (C-GEM; https://gem-net.net/).  The research team, which includes Professor Abhishek Chatterjee, is working on repurposing the translational apparatus to establish a fundamentally new form of chemical matter – sequence-defined chemical polymers. Combining computational and experimental approaches, C-GEM is repurposing nature’s protein biosynthesis machinery – the ribosome and it’s associated translation factors – to biosynthesize genetically encoded, sequence-defined chemical polymers with unprecedented functions and activities. The Chatterjee lab will contribute to this challenge by developing novel aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases that charge novel monomers structurally distinct from their natural substrates.  The $20 million Phase II funding will support the Center's research over the next five years.