National Center for Gene Therapy and Drugs based on RNA Technology

Peptide Nucleic Acids are one of the best-performing chemical tools for DNA/RNA recognition and manipulation. PNA properties can be changed using chemical modification, thus regulating affinity and selectivity for DNA, inserting reporter groups, regulating cellular uptake. The combination of PNAs with nanostructured materials can lead to several important applications, not only for overcoming the intrinsic PNA poor solubility and low cellular uptake, but also to use the PNA code for programming functions and self-assembly. Aim of the present project is to obtain new PNA structures and PNA-containing nanosystems enabling to combine DNA/RNA binding with one or multiple other functions that can be programmed by design, leading to new biological applications. To achieve these goals, a fundamental research will be carried out, starting from the very basic properties of PNAs and from the nature of their interactions with DNA, RNA, proteins and other biological macromolecules.

The project will include STRUCTURAL AND MODELLING STUDIES, SYNTHESIS OF PNAs AND MODIFIED PNAs, PNA-BASED ACTIVE MULTIFUNCTIONAL NANOMATERIALS, BIOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CELLS ABLE TO RICAPITULATE CANCER MICROENVIRONMENT, and PNA-BASED DIAGNOSTICS