All-Star Chemistry Team Studies DNA

An all-star team from the Department of Chemistry recently published "Synthesis and EPR Studies of 2 '-Deoxyuridines with Alkynyl, Rodlike Linkages" in Chemistry--A European Journal (Volume 15, Pages 7569-7577).  The team includes Distinguished Professor Michael Sevilla, Associate Professor Roman Dembinski,  and Assistant Professor John Finke (all CBR members). The lead author is Adam Sniady, a 2008 graduate of the Biomedical Sciences: Health and Environmental Chemistry PhD program working in Dembinski's laboratory, and now a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A picture related to the article graces the cover of the issue, and a brief description of the research from the journal website is reproduced below.

"One of two ways: Alkyne-tethered dinucleosides have been shown to display two distinct behaviors; when reduced, the electron is localized on only one ring, whereas if they are oxidized the electron is delocalized across both rings. This effect could be used as a gate that separates hole and electron transport between strands in DNA systems."