A recursive microfluidic platform to explore the emergence of chemical evolution

• David Doran,
• Marc Rodriguez-Garcia,
• Rebecca Turk-MacLeod,
• Geoffrey J. T. Cooper and
• Leroy Cronin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1702–1709, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.164

• evolution in droplets Here, we propose a system for facilitating chemical evolution in populations of co-incubating aqueous, single emulsion microfluidic droplets. Each microdroplet can be considered an autonomous microreactor, loaded with a self-propagating chemical reaction network. However, it has been

Grip on complexity in chemical reaction networks

• Albert S. Y. Wong and
• Wilhelm T. S. Huck

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1486–1497, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.147

• chemical entities on the properties of the network as a whole. Ultimately, this approach should allow us to not only understand such complex networks but also to guide and control their behavior. Keywords: chemical reaction network; complexity; dissipative systems; network motifs; out-of-equilibrium

• chemical approach, in contrast to synthetic biology, might involve the construction of a network of individual reactions that are well-characterized where the key kinetic parameters can all be experimentally verified. We recently showed that a chemical reaction network can be designed using enzymatic