Adjunct Associate Professor Frank Burton PhD

The purpose of this project is to perform 3D stereoscopic modeling, in Maestro, of theoretical non-replicative oligonucleotide (DNA and PNA) reproduction complexes, selected by their ability to facilitate or catalyze random oligonucleotide polymerization and non-random template reproduction, and on the basis of Macromodel-calculated energy states of their phosphate-backbone bond rotational conformations, melting  temperatures, and extents of cationic Wachtershauser-plane attraction. Data obtained from these 3D computer simulations are guiding the chemical synthesis and in situ psychrophilic (cryophilic) DNA annealing, and MRS, X-ray crystallographic, atomic force microscopic, and electrophoretic detection of real-world oligonucleotide complexes for confirmation of their predicted novel psychrophilic secondary and tertiary structures and test-tube confirmation of their predicted binding and catalytic capacities.