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DNA as a template for reaction discovery

Nature Biotechnology volume 22, pages 1378–1379 (2004)Cite this article

Biological tools enable researchers to discover new reactions from complex mixtures of different substrates.

Implicit in the term discovery is the idea of seeing something new. Yet, chemists for generations have sought to discover new reactions using mechanism-based, hypothesis-driven experiments. Inherent in the experimental design has been a hallmark of invention—the achievement of a molecular interconversion that verifies the inventor's intuition. Of course, serendipity has enriched reaction discovery since the field's inception. Can the invention of new organic reactions be systematized in a format that maximizes the opportunity for discovery? In a recent paper in Nature, Liu and coworkers have taken a major step in this direction with an approach to reaction screening that does not depend on any particular property of the starting materials or products1. DNA hybridization provides the template for chemical synthesis, and molecular biology tools are used to interpret the outcomes of the screens.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of reaction discovery through DNA-templated synthesis, in vitro selection, and DNA microarray analysis.

Bob Crimi

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  1. the Department of Chemistry, Boston College, 2609 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, 02467, Massachusetts, USA

    Scott J Miller

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  1. Scott J Miller
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Miller, S. DNA as a template for reaction discovery. Nat Biotechnol 22, 1378–1379 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1104-1378

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1104-1378

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