Kraig Wheeler
Whitworth University, WA·Chemistry
How a molecule's shape decides the way it packs with its neighbors is a basic question in chemistry and materials design. Using shape as a deliberate design tool for building crystals is rare, yet shape strongly affects how molecular components line up.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
quasiracemates
racemic crystals
peptides
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Synthesize families of acyclic and cyclic dipeptides and extended peptides by solid-phase peptide synthesis, systematically varying molecular shape and pendant functional groups.
- Determine how peptides pair with mirror-image or near-mirror-image partners in racemic and quasiracemic phases, using X-ray crystallography to reveal the resulting packing patterns.
- Map the shape space of peptide assemblies, including arrays formed with added coformer molecules, combining hot-stage thermomicroscopy with computational methods to identify which topological features drive assembly.
More about the research
This project studies small peptides, short chains of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins, to learn the rules that govern how they organize in molecular crystals.
Why it matters
Rules describing how molecular shape controls peptide packing could let chemists design crystalline materials more predictably, with potential applications in biotechnology noted by the project. Chiefly, the work adds fundamental understanding of molecular recognition that could inform future biomaterials and crystal engineering.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Matthew O'Reilly
Villanova University, PA·Chemistry·Early-career
Design arrays of cyclization reagents and screen many reaction conditions in parallel, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for rapid analysis, to find reliable ways to close strained cyclic tetrapeptides.
James Canary
New York University, NY·Chemistry
Develop mathematical and computational tools that distinguish molecules by their three-dimensional shape and structure, and use them to predict and constrain which topologies DNA motifs can adopt.
Morgan Stefik
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Materials Science
Determine how the chemical reactivity of polymers and nanoparticles controls lasting polymer-nanoparticle binding, so that designed polymer structure-directing agents keep particles in the order they were added.
The school
Whitworth University: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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