We work at the interface of synthetic organic chemistry and studies of modulation of gene expression in cells and organisms. We think nucleic acids are about the most amazing molecules out there – what other class of molecule can be synthesized, copied, read and translated? Or which other class of molecule can swap between functional, complex secondary structures and predictable, linear, readable duplex structure? Nucleic acid chemical biology gives us unique opportunities to interact with cellular processes, to treat and diagnose disease. Our goal is to harness chemistry and biology to help make oligonucleotides a major class of drugs.
