Name: Soham Mandal
Diploma / M.Sc degree: IIT Guwahati, India
(May 2012)

PhD Project: A family of luminescent bidentate purine-based ligands for metal-mediated base pairs

Abstract of Research Project

Nucleic acids are evolutionary optimized self-assembling macromolecules, and are good targets for metal ions and metal-containing compounds, because they are negatively charged and offer a plethora of potential binding sites. Metal-nucleic acid chemistry gathers relevance when transition metal compounds are applied as chemical probes in nucleic acid biochemistry. Replacement of natural nucleobases by artificial nucleobases, followed by incorporation of transition- metal ions into nucleic acids to form metal-mediated base pairs, emerged to be a promising bottom-up strategy for their site-specific functionalization. This method not only aims at expanding the genetic four letter alphabet, but also may pass the metal-based properties (redox chemistry, magnetism, conductivity or catalytic activity) to the modified nucleic acids. In this context, luminescent purine-based ligands have not been explored, thoroughly. The presence of different types of luminescent bidentate ligands will facilitate a systematic study of their incorporation in nucleic acids and formation of metal-mediated base pairs.