Molecular Click Adventures — A Leap From the Shoulders of Giants

The talk traces “molecular click adventures” from solid-support polymer beads enabling combinatorial chemistry and barcode-like readouts, to the discovery and mechanistic elucidation of Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). Using click chemistry, the work assembles multifunctional biomolecules, stabilizes peptide/protein folds, creates antimicrobial analogs, and reconstitutes split enzymes. It then pivots to de novo enzyme-like mini-proteins designed from mixed D/L amino acids via mutational molecular dynamics, and to [Formula: see text]-hairpin “[Formula: see text]-bodies” engineered for selective molecular recognition and inhibition/remodeling of amyloid-[Formula: see text] fibrils. Alongside technical results (copper redox caveats, quantitative bead assays), the paper advocates open, serendipity-friendly research, chemistry education for all, and funding models that better support both fundamental discovery and sustainability-driven applications.