BLACKSBURG, Va., May 18 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:
What happens when a scientific problem seems too complex to solve precisely, yet understanding it could reshape how researchers design new materials and medicines?
For decades, much of the polymer science community has relied on a "good enough" approach to a stubborn problem: binding a polymer to a protein in a precise way that reliably controls how the protein behaves.
Polymers - long chains built from repeating small molecules called monomers - make up much of the material world, from plastic bags and clothing to advanced medicines. Designing those chains to interact withproteins, however,has pushed the limits of precision ...