Evolutionary organocatalyst – riboglycosides (A07)

• Subject Area: Organic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 521256690

The goal of this project is to investigate a hitherto unknown level of prebiotic chemistry, namely the organocatalytic and evolutionary properties of imidazolidine-4-thiones, which are formed in excellent yields under prebiotic conditions from the simplest aldehyde building blocks. This project will investigate the modification of such imidazolidine-4-thiones with (deoxy)-ribosyl units, analogous to DNA/RNA, to synthesize RNA/DNA nucleoside amino acid chimeras under prebiotic conditions. The catalytic and information storing properties of these organocatalyst riboglycoside chimeras will be studied in detail.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 392: Molecular evolution in prebiotic environments
• Applicant Institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Oliver Trapp, since 1/2024