Matter to Life: Chemistry for Self-Organizing Compartments

Abstract: Lipid membranes in cells are fluid structures that undergo constant synthesis, remodeling, fission, and fusion. The dynamic nature of lipid membranes enables their use as adaptive compartments, making them indispensable for all life on Earth. Efforts to create life-like artificial cells will likely involve mimicking the structure and function of lipid membranes to recapitulate fundamental cellular processes such as growth, transport, and signal transduction. As such, there is considerable interest in chemistry that mimics the functional properties of membranes, with the express intent of recapitulating cellular phenomena while also providing clues to how life might have originated. I will present recent efforts from our lab to mimic some of the remarkable dynamic properties of living membranes. Leveraging the ability of small amphiphilic molecules to react with one another rapidly and selectively in aqueous environments, our laboratory has developed methods for the abiotic synthesis of membrane-forming lipids from basic starting materials. These reactions occur spontaneously in water, driving lipid self-assembly and the formation of cell-like membranes. I will discuss recent work in which we show spatiotemporal control of biomolecular compartmentalization, and demonstrate spontaneous formation of vesicles that entrap RNA in a selective manner.

Bio: Neal K. Devaraj is a Professor and the Murray Goodman Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He completed his undergraduate studies at MIT where he performed research in the laboratory of Prof. Moungi Bawendi. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University working under Profs. James Collman and Christopher Chidsey. Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Ralph Weissleder at the Harvard Medical School, he returned to Southern California to join the faculty at UCSD. One of his major research interests is in bioconjugation chemistry, including the development and application of tetrazine ligations and pretargeted chemistry. His research group has also developed approaches for the in-situ synthesis of synthetic cell membranes by using selective reactions to “stitch” together lipid fragments. This work has enabled the demonstration of self-reproducing lipid compartments and artificial membranes that can remodel their chemical structure. Recently, his lab has developed techniques to synthesize lipid species within living cells, enabling studies that decipher how lipid structure affects cellular function. For his lab’s work, he has been recognized by the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry, being named a Blavatnik National Laureate in Chemistry, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, and an ACS Cope Scholar Award.

Zoom Link: https://uoft.me/Devaraj2026
Meeting ID: 876 4409 4555
Passcode: Colloq2526

About the Peter Yates Lecture

Peter Yates was a leading professor at U of T and all of Canada in the area of structural organic chemistry.

Educated in England, Yates did a postdoctoral fellowship with R. B. Woodward at Harvard, going on to accept an offer to be a professor at Harvard.

Professor Yates was a very popular research mentor and teacher at Harvard, with many notable students. After a few years at Harvard, he moved to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto where he informally led the organic/biological chemistry faculty team for decades.

Over the years of his career, students in the Peter Yates lab group produced many new compounds that were stored in his labs on the fifth floor of Lash Miller. After his passing, Professors Ron Kluger and Mark Lautens of the Department of Chemistry contacted chemists at FMC, an agrichemicals company, and exchanged the compounds and notes on their creation for funds which, along with donations from others in Yates's memory, were used to establish the Yates lectureship. Further donations in his memory continue to this day.

The first Peter Yates Lectures were given by Professor Samuel Danishefsky, a leader in carbohydrate chemistry, who had received his PhD with Professor Yates at Harvard in 1962.

This special Peter Yates Lecture will be hosted by Prof. Ron Kluger.