Research Description

Our research group uses organic synthesis and biochemistry to study the chemical biology of nucleic acids. Through synthesis and design, our group develops new functional polymer, peptide, lipid and nucleic acid assemblies to provide chemical solutions for problems in delivery and to develop novel compounds that can report on and modulate nucleic acid function. Though each research effort is grounded in organic synthesis, these synthetic systems are interrogated using biophysical, biochemical and cell culture methods.

Much of our current research centers on the use of an unnatural triazine heterocycle, melamine, as an artificial base triple with U/U or T/T. When displayed multivalently, the melamine base engages with two Watson-Crick faces of thymine/uracil in DNA/RNA, resulting in the formation of triple-stranded hybrid structures. Synthetic triplex hybridizing molecules that utilize melamine as a base triple are in a family of molecules we call “bPNA” to represent bifacial [Peptide/Peptoid/Polymer] nucleic acid, according to the backbone used for melamine display. We have studied bPNAs as allosteric switches for aptamer binding and ribozyme catalysis, functional probes, directed cleavage reagents as well as packaging and targeting elements for nucleic acid delivery. Current research continues along these lines.