Salma Kassem

Papers

Total Citations

377

H-Index

About

Dr. Salma Kassem is a pioneering researcher in the field of molecular robotics and synthetic machinery, where she designs and controls molecular-scale systems that perform mechanical tasks. Her most celebrated contribution is the development of a small-molecule robotic arm capable of picking up, transporting, and releasing a molecular cargo—a breakthrough published in 2015 that has garnered 186 citations and laid the foundation for programmable molecular machines. She further advanced this work with the stereodivergent synthesis using a programmable molecular machine (177 citations), demonstrating how these systems can control chemical outcomes with unprecedented precision. In her 2020 study on site-to-site peptide transport, Kassem revealed that the size of peptide cargo does not affect transport efficiency, uncovering the ratcheted transport mechanism’s physical organic chemistry and enabling the transport of more complex biomolecules. Her research bridges chemistry, physics, and nanotechnology, offering transformative potential for drug delivery, nanomedicine, and smart materials. Kassem’s work is celebrated for its elegance and impact, inspiring a new generation of scientists to explore the frontier of molecular machinery.