9月25日应用化学系列讲座预告

　　报告题目：Building Functional Molecules with DNA Bases

　　报 告 人：谭蔚泓教授

　　单　　位：湖南大学

　　报告时间：2014年9月25日 (星期四)下午16:00

　　报告地点：中科院长春应化所 教育大厦6040室

    报告人简介：Professor Weihong Tan received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1993. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University. Tan’s group has developed research programs in chemical biology, bionanotechnology, bioanalysis and biomedical engineering. Currently, the Tan group is working on a variety of nucleic acid probes for biomedical studies and developing new nanomaterials and bionanotechnologies for bioanalysis, molecular imaging and drug delivery. Most importantly, the Tan group has pushed forward a coordinated effort to elucidate the molecular foundation of such intractable diseases as cancer by using a chemical biology approach. His work has been recognized by such prestigious organizations as Pittcon and the American Chemical Society. Tan has published extensively in the field of chemical biology, molecular engineering, bioanalytical chemistry and bionanotechnology, accumulating more than410 papers to his credit with an H-index of 86 and more than 22,100 citations. He is one of the 198 people world-wide selected as Highly Cited Researchers for the last 11 years (The world’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014). He is currently the Associate Editor for ACS Analytical Chemistry.

    报告摘要：Adding functionality to molecules is a key aspiration for most chemists and biologists, and, while very challenging, various synthetic methods have been developed by chemists to do just that. As reported in Science News, Julius Rebek Jr., MIT chemist, put forth the possibility “that self-replicating molecules can be rationally designed and synthesized from scratch.” Such synthetic methods are highly effective in making small molecules. However, creating large biomolecules with advanced functions still remains a daunting task. On the other hand, DNA bases, created from chemical synthesis, can be readily used as elegant and versatile building blocks to construct a variety of functional macromolecules. Today, we will discuss the construction of three types of molecules using DNA bases: molecular beacons to explore gene functions; molecular aptamers to discover disease biomarkers; and molecular motors to exploit the harvesting of light energy. While functionally different, these large molecules can all be synthesized easily with the same four DNA bases made by current synthetic methods. The way each base is engineered to the functional molecule uses the same chemistry and is even done automatically by a DNA synthesizer. However, it is the sequence of bases that finally dictates the particular molecular function. Thus, DNA bases with precision programmability can be used to make designer molecules for many challenging applications confronting chemists today and tomorrow. With the further development of artificial DNA bases using smart organic synthesis and the creation of DNA nanostructures using novel molecular assembly approaches, macromolecules with great diversity, additional versatility and advanced functions can be expected.

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