The Organic Synthesis Program is supporting the work of Dr. Margaret Etter. Etter, a professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota, is investigating how small molecules naturally organize themselves to form larger complexes. These newly organized aggregates have the unique ability to trap smaller molecules. This exciting area of chemistry is sometimes known as "host-guest" chemistry in recognition of the unique ability of the large complexes (hosts) to trap the smaller "guest" molecules, and is paving the way for the design of molecules that can mimic the biological catalysts, enzymes. The work involves the modelling, preparation, and characterization of hydrogen-bonded host-guest structures called cyclamers. These aggregates are formed from self-assembling smaller units through preferred hydrogen bonding interactions. Extensive molecular modelling to predict cavity sizes will be experimentally tested by examining the size of the guest molecules that the hosts can trap. Because of the hydrogen-bonded interactions in the host-guest relationship, the specificity expected should rival that from sigma-bonded macrocycles.
