Chemistry of High-Energy Content Reagents

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With this accomplishment based renewal award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program continues its support for the work of Professor Gary B. Schuster of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. The research will continue the PI's investigations of the factors affecting charge transport in DNA. The general approach will be to place an electron donor on a DNA chain, photogenerate a radical cation, migrate the charge along the chain, and trap the charge with a stronger electron donor. Various factors influencing the rate of this process will be evaluated. In particular, the role of the DNA counterions in charge migration, the effect of proton transfers on the process, and the role of water in charge transport will be probed using this technique. In order to assess the relevance of these experiments with soluble DNA to oxidative damage in genomic DNA, charge migration in DNA condensates will be investigated.These studies are expected to have broad impact upon the biological sciences. In particular, they will contribute to our knowledge of factors responsible for DNA damage and repair mechanisms and their potential relationship to genetic mutations. In addition the research will provide broad interdisciplinary training for students in areas ranging from nucleic acid chemistry to nanosecond spectroscopy.