Porphyrin/Nucleic Acid Interactions in Solution

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This award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program will support undergraduate research on the interaction of porphyrins with DNA. Porphyrins are the metal binding moieties which hold the iron in hemoglobin and myoglobin and the magnesium in chlorophyll. A major goal of the project is the direct visualization of porphyrin/DNA aggregates using the recently-developed scanning tunneling microscope. Visible-ultraviolet spectroscopy, fluorescence, circular dichroism and scanning tunneling microscopy will be used to investigate the structures and the nature of the interactions in long-range, highly-organized aggregates of porphyrins with DNA, using metalloporphyrins as well as the free-base porphyrins for which such aggregates were observed previously. The kinetics of these interactions will be investigated using a combination of classical and relaxation techniques. In addition to providing information about the structures, mechanism of formation and chemical reactivities of the aggregates, the experimental results are expected to provide the basis for the construction of reaction centers for catalysis of oxidation processes in solution.