James MacKay
Elizabethtown College, PA·Chemistry
Most of the RNA a cell makes never becomes protein. Over 70% of DNA is copied into RNA, while less than 2% codes for proteins.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biochemistry
- Topics
peptide nucleic acid
double-stranded RNA
dsRNA
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Design and synthesize new PNA nucleobases that improve pi-pi stacking of the peptide nucleic acid strand within PNA-double-stranded RNA triple helices, strengthening binding.
- Develop extended nucleobases that recognize the full Hoogsteen face, the outward edge, of Watson-Crick base pairs in double-stranded RNA, aiming at recognition of any sequence.
- Optimize the new PNA designs using molecular modelling and molecular dynamics simulations combined with synthetic organic chemistry, and evaluate their RNA-binding properties.
More about the research
The rest includes non-coding RNAs, which help regulate biological processes in ways that are still not fully understood. Chemical tools that bind a chosen RNA sequence would let researchers image these molecules, control what they do, and block them to test their roles. But double-stranded RNA, in which two strands pair with each other, has long been difficult to target by sequence, a standing limitation in RNA biochemistry.
Why it matters
Sequence-selective binders for double-stranded RNA could give biologists a general way to image, inhibit or control regulatory RNAs, which would help clarify what non-coding RNAs do. The grants note possible uses in biotechnology and synthetic biology, including designer riboswitches, and relevance to RNA-focused areas such as CRISPR-Cas9 technology and RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Bruce Armitage
Carnegie Mellon University, PA·Chemistry
Design fluorescent peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes that bind unmodified C9orf72 repeat RNAs, so these RNAs can be seen in biomolecular condensates by microscopy.
Dennis Bong
Ohio State University, OH·Chemistry
Synthesize bifacial peptide nucleic acid probes that bind U-rich internal loops in folded RNA by forming base triples, and test how broadly this loop motif works as a general targeting handle in structured RNAs.
Benjamin Partridge
University of Rochester, NY·Chemistry
Establish structure-function relationships for amphiphilic molecules that assemble into supramolecular capsules, linking molecular design to assembly and to how well they block amyloid beta fragments from forming fibers.
The school
Elizabethtown College: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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