Our research on Peptide Nucleic Acids (abbreviated as PNAs) focuses on introducing chemical modifications that will make this class of molecules broadly useful to detect sequences of nucleic acids and also to inspire new types of small molecule inhibitors for enzymes. Unique nucleic acid sequences are associated with diseases, pathogens, and many agents associated with bioterrorism. Detection of nucleic acids from these agents can be employed as a method to detect their presence or absence, as well as to monitor progression of a specific disease. Our research involves the synthesis of a class of non-natural molecules (called PNAs) that bind to specific DNA or RNA sequences. We can design our molecules to bind to any sequence of DNA or RNA, and we have found that our molecules are extremely good at selective recognition of HIV RNA. We have continued to refine our assay using our PNA molecules to detect a small amount of HIV in plasma. We also extended a study exploring the potential of sidechain-modified PNAs as a platform for the design and development of small molecule enzyme inhibitors, and we are trying to integrate our molecules into technological platforms for medical diagnostics.
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