(Phys.org) —A key feature of certain chemicals is their ability to bind to other molecules – a property that emerged through evolution – but current chemical theory lacks the ability to design binders from first principles. To resolve this dilemma, scientists at the University of Florida and the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution have recreated these Darwinian processes in vitro (that is, in the laboratory). Their approach extracts nucleic acids as binders from DNA/RNA libraries to evolve through a process called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment, or SELEX. (A ligand is a substance, usually a small molecule, that forms a complex with a biomolecule to serve a biological purpose,) However, natural DNA/RNA has only four nucleotides as building blocks, and so often yields poor binding molecules. By integrating synthetic biology, sequencing tools, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, and additional DNA/RNA building blocks from an Artificially Expanded Genetic Information Systems (AEGIS), the scientists successfully demonstrated the first example of SELEX using AEGIS, producing a molecule that binds to cancer cells.
↧