(1) Chemical Biology of Non-Canonical Nucleic Acid Structures.
Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) can adopt several structures in which the double helical DNA (canonical DNA) is the most common at cellular level. Nevertheless, non-canonical structures can form transiently during biological processes such as replication or RNA transcription. Our team is devoted to understand the roles of these non-canonical DNA/RNA structures in cells using a bottom-up multimodal approach of synthesis of small molecules, biophysical characterization of the interaction and cell evaluation to assess the biological mechanism. In particular, we are interested in:
- Development of G-quadruplex binders for anticancer therapies.
- Detection and visualisation of non-canonical DNA structures via a combination of molecular probes and microscopic technology.
- Biotechnological applications of non-canonical nucleic acid structures as drug delivery systems.
(2) Applications of Metal Complexes in Chemical Biology
Metal ions are essential components in the biological systems and control their functions, in particular iron, zinc and copper. Metal complexes can be synthetically obtained in the wet-lab with interesting and unusual properties and thereof, we are interested in the development of metallic complexes for imaging and therapeutic applications.
