Clean Genes: Chemists Cull the Good Synthetic DNA from the Bad
(麻豆淫院Org.com) -- Birds do it, bees do it. Even scientists in labs do it. But the scientists can't hold a candle to the birds and the bees, who can make gobs of primo DNA without even thinking about it.
DNA is a critical element of gene therapy, and scientists working to develop cures for diseases make it with synthesizers. Unfortunately, synthesizers don鈥檛 do nearly as good a job as cells in stringing nucleic acids together to make DNA, and many of the resulting sequences鈥攃alled truncated DNA鈥攁re too short and must be discarded.
Isolating perfect DNA sequences is very expensive, so expensive that some clinical trials for gene therapy drugs have been put on hold for lack of funding. A discovery by Shiyue Fang, an assistant professor of chemistry at Michigan Technological University, could change that.
鈥淥ur method can provide high-quality, pure synthetic DNA by the kilogram at a much lower cost,鈥� he says. It could also be used to purify RNA and other biological molecules such as peptides that have potential as pharmaceuticals.
Fang adds monomers鈥攎olecules that can link together into polymers鈥攖o the nucleic acids in a stock DNA synthesizer. Truncated DNA won鈥檛 attach to the monomers, but all other strands of DNA will. Then, once the synthesis is complete, the monomers join together to form a long polymer hanging with perfect DNA sequences, like clean laundry on a clothesline. 鈥淭hen we just snip them off,鈥� says Fang. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice trick.鈥�
Fang鈥檚 process does not weed out those few DNA sequences that are too long or are missing a nucleic acid. 鈥淔ortunately, these impurities exist only in minute quantities,鈥� he says.
Fang is now tweaking the process so that the monomers attach only to the truncated DNA. It鈥檚 relatively easy to wash the polymers out of solution, leaving behind the perfect strands.
Fang has filed a patent application on the process and hopes it can soon be put to good use by medical researchers. And, as DNA drugs enter the market, his purification method could drastically reduce manufacturing costs, benefiting patients with genetic and many other diseases and their insurers, including Medicare.Fang鈥檚 work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and published in the American Chemical Society Journal -- Organic Letters as a rapid communication.
PhD student Suntara Fueangfung is a coauthor on , 鈥淪calable Synthetic Oligodeoxynucleotide Purification with Use of a Catching by Polymerization, Washing, and Releasing Approach.鈥�
Provided by Michigan Technological University
