Bioorthogonal Chemistry

For many years, our group has been developing techniques for the site-specific modification, labeling and tagging of nucleic acids. We were the first to introduce Diels-Alder reactions into nucleic acids chemistry, we worked with aldehyde-hydrazide chemistry, and currently we are using various types of „click“ reactions for site-specific multiple labeling of nucleic acids. Dye-labeled nucleic acids are of interest for numerous applications, from intracellular tracking to biochemical structure-function investigations to nanotechnology applications. The inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction is of particular interest to us, as it is fast and selective and occurs under mild conditions. Methods for the enzymatic incorporation of suitable building blocks must be developed. Furthermore, the orthogonality with other cycloadditions should be investigated, and robust protocols for the site-specific multiple labeling of nucleic acids should be developed.

References:

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3. Pfander et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 2007 (35) e25.
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6. Winz et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 2012 in press.