Biological macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids are unimolecular species just like low molar mass organic compounds. However, synthetic macromolecules known most of the time as polymers, contain mixtures of different chain length, the most uniform being generated by living polymerizations that contain about 1 to a maximum of 2% desirable length. Unimolecular natural and synthetic oligomers can be obtained in low quantities only by tedious, multistep iterative methods. This project will aim to develop a general methodology to synthesize unimolecular biological synthetic macromolecules by a polymerization reaction. The methodology relies on a concept that combines supramolecular and polymer chemistry and differs from the conventional reactivity principles employed in the synthesis of polymers for over 100 years.
