DNA as Substrate Speeds Up Chemical Reaction Discovery Time

September 30, 2004 | Source: KurzweilAI

Harvard University scientists have developed a new way to test the reactions between multiple chemicals simultaneously by piggybacking collections of different small organic molecules onto short strands of DNA, which then gives the reactants the opportunity to react by zipping together.

This system for reaction discovery, driven by DNA-templated synthesis, is so efficient that a single researcher can evaluate thousands of potential chemical reactions in a two-day experiment.

Harvard University news release