Bioorganic
& Biomimetic Chemistry
Overview
Bio-organic and biomimetic chemistry is about understanding organic chemistry principles underlying biological processes and utilize it to create new molecules and materials with novel properties for practical applications.
Mission
& Goals
The major goal of this activity is to interface synthetic organic chemistry with biological and materials chemistry to develop novel therapeutic, diagnostic and functional materials.
Competency
- Design, synthesis and biophysical evaluation of chemically modified oligonucleotides
- Modified peptides and peptide nucleic acids synthesis and characterization
- Custom synthesis of oligonucleotides and peptides
- Inositol synthesis, chemistry and biology
- Analysis of supramolecular structures and crystal engineering
- Biomolecular optical spectroscopy DNA/PNA hybridization and ligand binding studies
- Structural characterization of biomolecular complexes from NMR and crystallography
Facilities
Automated Synthesizers
- DNA synthesizer (ABI 3900)
- Peptide synthesizer (ABI 433A)
- PNA synthesizer (ABI-Expedite)
- DNA Thermal Cycler (Perkin Elmer)
Spectrometers
- Thermal and Kinetic UV spectrometer (Perkin Elmer Lambda 15)
- Circular/ Linear Dichroic Spectrometer (Jasco J 715 1501)
- Fluorescence spectrometer (Perkin Elmer L550B)
Silicon Fraphics Modelling
Analytical HPLC
- Hewlett Packard Ti 1050 with auto sampler and Fluorescence Detector1046A
Prep HPLC (Varian-Prostar)
Glimpses
of current research
Antisense agents block gene expression by complexing
with corresponding m-RNA
When the genes code for disease related proteins, this has therapeutic implications. NCL is currently involved in discovering and developing chemically modified DNA and NA analogues as efficient antisense leads. Novel DNA binding agents including chiral polyamine dendrimers are being studied.
Chimeric and hybrid peptides
Chimeric and hybrid peptides based on conformational pre-organization are being developed as novel enzyme inhibitors and as collagen mimetics. (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2001, 121, 2079.)
myo-Inositol
myo-Inositol phosphorylated derivatives are involved in cellular signal transduction and their receptors are potential targets for pharmacological intervention in states of disease. Towards this end, NCL is interested in developing synthetic routes to Inositol derivatives and study of their molecular recognition properties (Chem. Commun, 2001 881.)
DNA nanotechnology
DNA nanotechnology aims at generating functional devices through periodic assemblies of nanoparticles on DNA as template. At NCL, capped and charged gold and silver nanoparticles are being deposited on various topological matrices derived from designed synthetic oligonucleotides and their conjugates. Potential applications of such systems include design of DNA chips and conducting nanowires (Adv. Mater., 2001, 13, 341.)
Drug polymorphism
Drug polymorphism is currently an active area of scientific interest with wide pharmacological implications. Employing crystallography, powder diffraction and solid state NMR, systematic approaches are being developed to understand the science of polymorphism.
(Cryst.
Contact
Dr. KN Ganesh
National Chemical Laboratory ,
Pune 411 008
Email :kng@ems.ncl.res.in
Phone :+91-20-2589 3300/2589 3153
Fax :+91-20-2589 3153