Nucleic Acid Analogs

Dear Colleagues,

The naissance and development of molecular biology has greatly benefited from the support of the chemistry of  important biomolecules (amino acids, peptides, proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids). This fact may sound trivial for chemists but it has not been widely acknowledged by the practitioners of modern biology. Consequently, chemistry has long been considered as an auxiliary science of biology. Indeed, the methods routinely used in contemporary biological research largely rely on developments from fields outside the scope of biology itself, mainly from chemical, physical and IT sciences. This is a fortunate synergy among fields seemingly far from each other.

Chemistry, however, is a science in its own right, with aims and scopes originating not only from other disciplines but from the curiosity of its pursuers. The role of nucleic acids has been firmly established since the deciphering of double helix structure of DNA and the above outlined tremendous development of molecular biology methods with huge impact on other fields as well. The contribution of nucleic acid chemistry to this success is not ceasing, just remember the everyday use of DNA sequencing methods. Along with this development, nucleic acid research is taking new directions as well: synthesis of even more complex molecules like RNA, synthetic analogues (peptide nucleic acids, locked nucleic acids, morpholino oligos, conjugates etc.), superior analytical methods (e.g. those based on mass spectrometry), study of higher-order structures (triple and quadruple helices), investigation of molecular electronic devices based on nucleic acid analogues, to name just a few. I would like to cordially invite everyone involved it his exciting field and to contribute to the success of our Special Issue "Nucleic Acid Analogs" by presenting her/his results.

Prof. Dr. Lajos Kovacs
Guest Editor