The C-GEM team at a group retreat at UC Berkeley in 2023. Photo credit: Karen Wong
The National Science Foundation has renewed funding for the NSF Center for Genetically Encoded Materials (C-GEM), an NSF Center for Chemical Innovation led by researchers at UC Berkeley. C-GEM tackles a “Holy Grail” problem in the chemical sciences: how to synthesize truly sequence-defined chemical polymers, oligomeric molecules possessing both a pre-determined, diverse sequence, and a defined length.
“We are incredibly grateful to the NSF for recognizing the tremendous progress of the C-GEM team over the past five years,” says Alanna Schepartz, T.Z. and Imgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and Director of C-GEM. “C-GEM can now generate ribosomally synthesized materials containing beta, gamma, and delta backbones and others that contain C-C bonds in place of the natural C-N bond. And the chemistry and ribosome structural biology to set us up for the future.”
C-GEM was started in 2017 as a preliminary Phase I award. Those early collaborations led to five years of funding to establish a center comprising eight institutions across the United States and spanning the fields of chemical biology, biophysics, and material sciences. With the combined efforts of 18 labs, C-GEM developed new tools to optimize genetic code expansion, took steps towards engineering the ribosome for new chemistry, and produced new materials that open the doors to generate a new class of molecules.
Looking forward, the center plans to expand on previous innovations to produce genetically encoded sequence-defined chemical polymers. C-GEM researchers are working towards improving and scaling the production of new materials, macrocyclic peptide drugs, peptide-based drug delivery systems, and more. The center also engages the community through education and outreach initiatives that engage new generations of scientists in hands-on research and bring STEM education to all.
Read about C-GEM’s published research on the center’s website.