"Masterpiece" copolymer sequences by targeted equilibrium-shifting

[GRAPHICS] We describe an equilibrium model to determine whether a random population o f dynamic copolymer sequences could be driven by molecular recognition to a subset of sequences that tightly bind a specific ligand, The model predict s that the population's mean binding constant can be shifted, but because o f competitive binding, only to a limited degree (ca. 2 orders of magnitude larger than the original mean). True chemical evolution will require a mech anism for selection and amplification.