DNA mimics containing non-nucleosidic base surrogates

Abstract

Chemically modified nucleic acids find widespread use as tools in research, as diagnostic reagents and as pharmaceutical compounds. While the major efforts in the past concentrated on the generation of sugar-based nucleotide analogues, the potential of non-nucleosidic and non-hydrogen bonding building blocks is largely untouched to date. Such derivatives may have an impact in the fields of materials and genetic research. In this paper, some recent findings of our work in this area are highlighted. © Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft.