The capability to imprint the chiral information by external physical fields on the supramolecular level is a fascinating property for self-assembled systems. Among various truly chiral physical fields, special attention is devoted in Messina to hydrodynamic vortexes, convective flows and thermal gradients. Finding the correlation of the chiroptical response to the asymmetric physical perturbations with the structural features of different systems can help the rational interpretation of the symmetry breaking phenomenon occurring in the natural chiral selection.
Supramolecolar chirality is also investigated in Pisa by exploiting solution NMR spectroscopy, with the aim to understand the mechanisms at the basis of the supramolecular assembly involving biological building blocks and pharmaceutical compounds.