Click Chemistry for Materials Science

Featuring M.G. Finn, Ph.D.
Professor, Chemistry
Scripps Research Institute

Location:  PCB 1200
Free and open to the public

Abstract: 
Highly reliable C-heteroatom bond forming reactions are of great utility in the creation and modification of polymeric materials and surfaces. The mechanisms of two click reactions – azide-alkyne cycloaddition and anchimeric assistance-driven substitution – will be discussed, as well as their application to the modification of virus-like nanoparticles and the formation of adhesives and polycationic transfection reagents.

About the Speaker: 
M.G. Finn received his Ph.D. degree in 1986 from MIT working with Prof. K.B. Sharpless, followed by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. J.P. Collman at Stanford University. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1988, where his group studied a variety of transition metal-catalyzed processes. Prof. Finn moved to the Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in 1999. His current interests include the development of click chemistry for organic and materials synthesis, the use of virus particles as molecular building blocks, polyvalent interactions in drug targeting and immunology, and the use of evolution for the discovery of chemical function. He directs the Scripps Predoctoral Training Program in Molecular Evolution.