title: "Masterpiece" copolymer sequences by targeted equilibrium-shifting
abstract: We describe an equilibrium model to determine whether a random population of dynamic copolymer sequences could be driven by molecular recognition to a subset of sequences that tightly bind a specific ligand. The model predicts that the population's mean binding constant can be shifted, but because of competitive binding, only to a limited degree (ca. 2 orders of magnitude larger than the original mean). True chemical evolution will require a mechanism for selection and amplification.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 61801, USA. moore@scs.uiuc.edu
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Zimmerman