Solving chemical problems through the application of evolutionary principles

Molecular evolution has been widely applied in the laboratory to generate novel biological macromolecules. The principles underlying evolution have more recently been used to address problems in the chemical sciences, including the discovery of functional synthetic small molecules, catalysts, materials and new chemical reactions. The application of these principles in dynamic combinatorial chemistry and in efforts involving small molecule–nucleic acid conjugates has facilitated the evaluation of large numbers of candidate structures or reactions for desired characteristics. These early efforts suggest the promise of pairing evolutionary approaches with synthetic chemistry.