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CHIMERA

 

Our goal is to bring to the market an innovative device (under patenting) to uniquely identify the chirality of molecules.

Chirality is the sense of twist that many natural systems exhibit

In other words, an object is chiral if it differs from its mirror image, i.e. if it cannot be superimposed onto it. Depending on its twist, a chiral object is said to have left-handed (LH) or right-handed (RH) chirality. These two forms, called enantiomers, share the same chemical formulation but differ in their 3D spatial arrangement. Biological objects are chiral: for example, all amino acids are LH, whereas natural sugars (carbohydrates), including DNA, are RH. Chirality plays a vital role not only in biology.

Being able to identify and separate LH from RH molecules is extremely important for chemistry, biochemistry, agricultural industries and pharmaceutics

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Proof of Concept" framework (grant agreement No 754802). It is headed by Prof. Dario Polli of the Physics Department of Politecnico di Milano (Italy).