Catalytic nucleic acids that highlight surprising fundamental properties of DNA and RNA

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The thrust of my research program is to explore the universe of chemical catalysis available to RNA and DNA, the "nucleic acids" that are the shared genetic material of all living organisms. Nobel-winning discoveries have revealed that these biopolymers, thought for long to operate solely as agents for storing and expressing genetic information, can also catalyze metabolic reactions. My own research group uses varied methodologies to try and define what reactions such enzymes made out of RNA and DNA ("ribozymes" and "DNAzymes") can indeed catalyze. Our goals are fourfold: to test the validity of the powerful "RNA World Hypothesis", which posits that very early life forms used nucleic acids for both genetic and metabolic purposes; to define how well enzymes made from these biopolymers can function, vis-a-vis protein enzymes; to generate useful reagents for application in the clinic, in industry, and in biomedical research; and, to recognize what our catalytic RNAs and DNAs may be telling us about their possible roles in biology. My lab has used the methods of "