This Award is a Career Advancement Award in the Organic Dynamics Program of the Chemistry Division. With these funds Professor Hilkka Kenttamaa of Purdue University will study the feasibility of using gas phase ion-molecule reactivity techniques to study neutral DNA molecules prepared in the gas phase by laser desorption. The project has as a long range objective the study of free radical reactions involving biopolymers. The gas phase study of large molecules of biological interest holds promise as an analytical technique as well as for study of solvent-free or sparsely solvated structures and of their interactions. This project will develop methodology for such studies of DNA.
