The Cronin Group

Research in the Cronin Group is motivated by the fascination for complex chemical systems, and the desire to construct complex functional molecular architectures that are not based on biologically derived building blocks.

Cronin Group take robotic steps towards “Artificial Chemical Evolution”

In a breakthrough published in Nature Communications, Prof Cronin and his group have described the robotically-facilitated evolution of oil droplets. The group used a custom built robot based on a RepRap 3D printer which generates the droplets, measures their fitness against a fitness function, and then uses a genetic algorithm to generate a new population. By demonstrating that these could be viable “chemical protocell models” as they can be evolved yet are based upon simple chemical ingredients, Prof Cronin hopes that we can start to answer some important questions about the origin of life.

Open Access paper in Nature Communicatsions

News item on University of Glasgow website

Article in Wired

Article at Phys.org

Article in Nature Chemistry News and Views

Prof. Leroy (Lee) Cronin

Prof Leroy (Lee) Cronin
Regius Chair of Chemistry
Advanced Research Centre (ARC)
Level 5, Digital Chemistry
University of Glasgow
11 Chapel Lane
Glasgow G11 6EW
Tel: +44 141 330 6650
Email: lee.cronin@glasgow.ac.uk

Latest Publications

502. Delocalized, asynchronous, closed-loop discovery of organic laser emitters

501. Investigating and Quantifying Molecular Complexity Using Assembly Theory and Spectroscopy

500. Electron density-based GPT for optimization and suggestion of host–guest binders

499. Evidence of Selection in Mineral Mediated Polymerization Reactions Executed in a Robotic Chemputer System

498. A programmable hybrid digital chemical information processor based on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

497. An integrated self-optimizing programmable chemical synthesis and reaction engine

496. Autonomous execution of highly reactive chemical transformations in the Schlenkputer

495. Universal chemical programming language for robotic synthesis repeatability

494. Bringing digital synthesis to Mars

493. An Autonomous Electrochemical Discovery Robot that Utilises Probabilistic Algorithms: Probing the Redox Behaviour of Inorganic Materials

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The Cronin Group

Cronin Group take robotic steps towards “Artificial Chemical Evolution”

Prof. Leroy (Lee) Cronin

Latest Publications

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