Chemists document chirality of single molecules in Science Express
A team of researchers led by associate professors of Chemistry Mike Barnes and Dhandapani Venkataraman reported the first observation of chiral effects with single molecules in the Nov. 2 edition of Science Express.
“Probing the Chiroptical Response of a Single Molecule” is also scheduled to appear in the November issue of Science.
“Chirality” is the presence in nature of mirror images, such as left and right hands. This phenomenon shows up at the molecular level too, and interestingly, all chiral biological molecules are “left handed.” This asymmetry remains unexplained, though it is crucial for the development of drugs. Barnes and Venkataraman probed chiral molecules through their asymmetric interaction with light, which was studied in the early 1800s by Biot and Pasteur. However those measurement techniques necessarily required averaging over the response of a very large number of molecules.
Using sophisticated “single-molecule imaging techniques” developed by Barnes, combined with a novel fluorescent chiral molecular system developed by Venkataraman, the research team succeeded in revealing the chirality of one single molecule. Their results may provide fundamental insights into drug activity, and may also suggest advances in novel optical display technologies.
November 2, 2006.
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