The electroweak origin of biomolecular chirality

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Project objective

Research objectives and content All biomolecules are of one hand: biochemistry is homochiral But what determines which hand? Why is life based on L-amino acids and not D? The answer may lie in the weak force, mediated by the Zr boson, which makes the natural L amino acids very slightly more stable than their ' unnatural mirror images. I shall be calculating this parity-violating energy difference (PVED) between enantiomers for a range of important biomolecules using computer programs developed at Cambridge. I will assist in writing new computer code to improve these calculations and extend the calculations to larger molecules. I may also assist in a related project to detect homochirality as a signature of extra-terrestrial life. Light from Earth-like planets round nearby stars should be circularly polarized from scattering by optically active biomaterials such as leaves, and calculations of this reflection circular dichroism will be needed in preparation for possible detection by the ESA space interferometer being considered for launch in 2015. "

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• University of Cambridge · CambridgeCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
• Not availableCity levelIreland

Links

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