Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 90, p. 1139, February 1993 Colloquium Paper

This paper serves as an introduction to the following papers, which were presented at a colloquium entitled "Molecular Recognition, " organized by a committee chaired by Ronald Breslow, held September 10 and 11, 1992, at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

Molecular recognition RONALD BRESLOW Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027-6948

The two-day colloquium on molecular recognition was orga- recognition by antibodies in clinical assays and ways to nized by a committee comprising Ronald Breslow, Michael obtain very high sensitivity in his talk "Strategies for rapid Czarniecki, Arthur Karlin, and Clark Still. Eighteen speakers detection and increased specificity of molecular recognition working on various aspects ofthe field addressed an audience events for analytical applications." of about 120, drawn from active senior academic and indus- Molecular recognition ofbiologically important macromol- trial researchers and from graduate students and postdoctoral ecules was featured in two talks. Peter Dervan spoke on fellows. The following 11 papers are taken from this collo- "Molecular recognition ofdouble helical DNA," in which he quium. described the selective recognition of particular base se- Richard Axel described studies on "The molecular biology quences by synthetic probes, while Alanna Schepartz spoke of smell," showing evidence on the nature of odor receptors on related approaches to other macromolecules as well in her in the nose and their connections into the brain. Wayne talk "Macromolecular recognition from RNA to DNA to Hendrickson described his studies on the "Structural char- protein. " acterization of molecular interactions at the cell surface," Molecular recognition by synthetic chemical systems that including some examples of considerable medical impor- simulate enzymes and antibodies was also a subject. Yukito tance. H. Gobind Khorana described "Signal transduction in Murakami spoke on "Supramolecular effects and molecular two light-transducing systems: Bacteriorhodopsin and mam- discrimination by macrocyclic hosts embedded in synthetic bilayer membranes," pointing out the advantages of such malian rhodopsin," with detailed structural evidence about membranes in biomimicry, while Steven Zimmerman de- the systems involved. Daniel Koshland talked about "The scribed "Biomimetic molecular recognition and self- aspartate receptor and transmembrane signaling," with evi- assembly" by synthetic systems with carefully designed dence about how the recognition of aspartic acid by a cell geometries. Ronald Breslow spoke on "Recognition, bind- leads to the biological response. Arthur Karlin described the ing, and catalysis" in a talk that included a study of a recent evidence from his studies on "Cation recognition by synthetic DNA isomer, and Clark Still's talk on "Theoretical acetylcholine receptors" that trigger nerve action. and experimental studies on molecular recognition" de- Several talks focused on molecular recognition by anti- scribed how well molecular modeling and other theoretical bodies and on their application. Peter Schultz spoke on approaches can predict the properties of synthetic binders. "New opportunities at the interface of chemistry and biolo- Dudley Williams spoke on "Towards the estimation of gy" and Richard Lerner spoke on "Antibodies by chemistry binding constants in aqueous solution," describing fundamen- and for chemistry." These two talks sequentially described tal approaches to understanding and predicting hydrophobic the current status ofstudies on catalysis ofchemical reactions and other forces. William Jorgensen's talk "Computational by antibodies, acting as enzyme mimics. Donald Hilvert's studies of molecular recognition in organic and biomolecular talk on "Antibody catalysis of metabolically essential reac- systems" focused on a comprehensive theoretical approach, tions in vivo" described a system in which a catalytic while Martin Karplus spoke on "Simulations of the recogni- antibody is expressed in a cell that is deficient in a normal tion processes in proteins: Binding free energies and ligand enzyme. Ted Ullman described the application of molecular design," addressing theoretical approaches to understanding existing systems and predicting the properties of new ones. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge Not all of the talks are reported in this issue. Readers are payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" urged to contact any speaker whose unpublished work is of in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. particular interest.

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