Mahesh Pol

Project

Amide bond formation and hydrolysis: Developing adaptive and active materials
Living systems possess an overwhelming molecular complexity that largely results from combinations of just twenty amino acids, which are the main building blocks of peptides and proteins. My work is to investigate the formation of peptides by using chemically activated systems. The overall aim of this project is to address a fundamental question in organic and supramolecular chemistry – the formation and hydrolysis of amide bonds or peptide bonds in water at physiological conditions.

First supervisor

Dr. Charalampos Pappas

Publications in livMatS

• Abiotic Acyl Transfer Cascades Driven by Aminoacyl Phosphate Esters and Self-Assembly*.
  Pol, M. D., Ralf Thomann, Yi Thomann, Pappas, C. G., (2024). Abiotic Acyl Transfer Cascades Driven by Aminoacyl Phosphate Esters and Self-Assembly. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 43, 29621–29629. doi: 10.1021/jacs.4c10082
• Guiding Transient Peptide Assemblies with Structural Elements Embedded in Abiotic Phosphate Fuels*
  Pol, M., Dai, K., Thomann, R., Moser, S., Roy, S. K., & Pappas, C. G. (2024). Guiding Transient Peptide Assemblies with Structural Elements Embedded in Abiotic Phosphate Fuels. Angewandte Chemie, e202404360. doi: 10.1002/anie.202404360
• Spontaneous and Selective Peptide Elongation in Water Driven by Aminoacyl Phosphate Esters and Phase Changes*
  Dai, K., Pol, M. D., Saile, L., Sharma, A., Liu, B., Thomann, R., Trefs, J. L., Qiu, D., Moser, S., Wiesler, S., Balzer, B., Hugel, T., Jessen, H. J. & Pappas, C. G. (2023). Spontaneous and Selective Peptide Elongation in Water Driven by Aminoacyl Phosphate Esters and Phase Changes. <i<Journal of the American Chemical Society. doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c07918