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SUMMARY:Designing protein polymerases for unnatural nucleic acids - Vitor 
 Pinheiro  MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
DTSTART:20101124T103000Z
DTEND:20101124T113000Z
UID:TALK27032@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Alfonso De Simone
DESCRIPTION:DNA and RNA are uniquely suited to be the information storage 
 and\npropagation molecules in biology. It is unclear\, however\, whether t
 hey are the only solutions available or are simply successful answers for 
 heredity and evolution. To conclusively address questions on the uniquenes
 s of DNA and RNA as genetic material\, we have used synthetic chemistry\, 
 protein design and directed evolution to develop a new genetic system base
 d on 1\,5 anhydrohexitol nucleic acids (HNA)\, a nucleic acid architecture
  not found in nature. Thermostable archaeal DNA-dependent DNA polymerases 
 were used as the starting point to develop a two polymerase system that al
 lows efficient transfer of genetic information from DNA into HNA and back 
 into DNA with an aggregate fidelity comparable to RNA virus replication. T
 he HNA system provides a foundational technology for a new field of "synth
 etic genetics" concerned with the exploration of the sequence and phenotyp
 ic space of unnatural genetic biopolymers.
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\,  Department of Chemistry
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