Desing and synthesis of modified nucleosides and base-pairs for studying of polymerase specificity and selectivity and for extension of the genetic alphabet

Nucleosides bearing artificial or modified nucleobases can be used in chemical biology as tools for studying and modulation of biological processes, as well as for preparation of artificial bioanalogous systems. One of the possible applications is the quest for extension of the genetic alphabet pursued in several laboratories. Novel types of modified nucleosides (in particular C-nucleosides) are being designed and synthetized in our laboratory for these purposes. Their applications include phosphorylations and incorporations to nucleic acids (studied in collaboration with Prof. R. Kuchta, University of Colorado at Boulder and Prof. Floyd Romesberg, Scripps Research Institute), chemical incorporation to oligonucleotides and studying of the stability of duplexes.