The Chemical Bonding Center

The Chemical Bonding Center at Massachusetts General Hospital is part of the new National Science Foundation . Chemical Bonding Centers Program and is funded by NSFs division of chemistry . The Center represents a unique, multi-faceted, collaboration among the laboratories of Jack W. Szostak (MGH), Steven A. Benner (University of Florida) and Gerald F. Joyce (The Scripps Research Institute), bringing together different approaches to a major chemical problem. The long-term goal of the Chemical Bonding Center is the synthesis of artificial chemical systems that can undergo Darwinian evolution. Darwinian chemistry requires chemical structures that can support self-replication. The chemical system must then be able to suffer variation in structure while retaining the capacity to replicate. Variations in the structure must themselves be heritable. Darwinian behavior is the natural consequence of a molecular system that displays this combination of properties.