Miguel Galindo, Associate professor of Chemistry at the University of Grenada, will deliver a seminar entitled, "Metallized Watson-Crick Base Pairs: Opening the Door to Customizable Metal-DNA Assemblies." Hosted by Yoel Ohayon.
For more information about Miguel Galindo's research, click here.
Abstract: DNA molecules are not only interesting from a biological point of view. They have also attracted the attention of scientists from different disciplines, including chemists, physicists, and engineers, due to their remarkable potential to create intricate custom architectures at the nanoscale through their unique self-assembly capabilities. However, native DNA molecules lack specific properties for applications such as conduction, photoluminescence or magnetism. To introduce these functionalities, the incorporation of external entities becomes necessary, and metals are excellent candidates for this task.
In this seminar, I will present our strategy to create metallo-DNA assemblies, where we maintain precise control over the structural design and strategically position metal ions within the helix's core. The methodology fully respects the organization of Watson-Crick base pairs, and therefore, in principle, any DNA-based architecture could be transformed into its metal-modified DNA equivalent. In addition, I will also show how we exploit self-assembly reactions between single-stranded DNA and metal complexes complementary to the bases to obtain customized metallic DNA assemblies. The final metal-DNA arrangement will depend on the choice of the nucleobase sequence and the metal complexes used. Therefore, different design options can adjust the properties of these systems.
Bio: Miguel A. has been an Associate Prof. (Senior Lecturer) at the Universidad de Granada (UGR) since 2017. He completed his Doctoral Thesis (2006) in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of UGR. He then began postdoctoral research in the Chemical Nanoscience Laboratory group of Prof. Andrew Houlton (Newcastle University, UK) where he enjoyed a Marie Curie IEF until 2011. He then returned to UGR with a Marie Curie RG and initiated his independent career in the field of bioinorganic chemistry, mainly focused on studying new metal-DNA systems.