Adding Letters to Life's Alphabet

In a story on the front page of the Science Times section of the New York Times (July 24, 2001), Andrew Pollack featured the work of Caltech CSEM researchers (and others) who are pursuing the creation of novel protein-like macromolecules. To quote Pollack, "The research goes well beyond current genetic engineering, which involves reshuffling the ordinary components of DNA or proteins into new combinations or moving DNA from one organism to another. Adding completely new elements to DNA and proteins is essentially rewriting the genetic code, the fundamental language of life." At Caltech, this effort has focused on creating the machinery necessary to build artificial proteins with useful material properties, including materials to be used in surgical reconstruction, in medical diagnosis, or in detection and elimination of undesirable chemical and biological species. This research is necessarily highly collaborative, involving biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers and physicians, and can thrive only in the rich multi-investigator environment fostered by the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers.