First lecture: 07. November 2017, following lectures on the 21.Nov., 5. Dec., 12. Dec. 2017, 16. Jan., 23.Jan., 06 Feb. 2018.

This interdisciplinary course on the interface of organic chemistry, chemical, molecular and synthetic biology aims to provide the current status of research on the following topics:

Artificial genetic polymers and oligonucleotide analogues; unnatural base pairing – expansion of the genetic alphabet; artificial ribozymes for efficient catalysis and recognition (SELEX, DNAzymes, foldamers); biosynthetic incorporation of unnatural aminoacids (UAAs) into proteins; enzyme engineering – production of enzymes with unknown or unnatural properties, ab initio protein design, directed evolution, theozymes; Artificial lipid vescicles as models for protocell multiplication; synthetic biological circuits – riboswitches, time-delay circuits, oscilators, optogenetics; design of artificial organisms – minimal genome project, Synthia – fully artificial genome resulting in living bacterial species

This is a continuation of the SoSe2017 lecture "The molecular origins of life" that was focused on processes which could allow abiotic generation of biomolecules (aminoacids, lipids, nucleotides, sugars) on the early Earth for the following origin of life.