Renjie Wang
Florida Atlantic University, FL·Chemistry
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic compounds nicknamed "forever chemicals" because they barely break down in the environment. They are found widely in water, soil and human tissue, and exposure has been linked to adverse health effects.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biophysics
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
forever chemicals
nucleic acids
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Measure how commonly encountered PFAS molecules bind nucleic acids of varying base composition, testing whether binding preference tracks with carbon-chain length and chemical functional group.
- Determine shape changes in DNA and RNA after PFAS exposure using circular dichroism and UV-vis spectroscopy, viscosity measurements, and atomic force and transmission electron microscopy imaging.
- Quantify binding strength by measuring melting temperature, binding enthalpy and the equilibrium association constant for each PFAS–nucleic acid pair.
- Define the thermodynamic driving force of binding, including stoichiometry, Gibbs free energy, entropy and heat capacity changes, using isothermal titration calorimetry.
More about the research
Yet how they actually cause harm at the molecular level is still largely unknown. Earlier work showed PFAS stick to proteins more strongly as their carbon chains lengthen, and that exposure disturbs DNA methylation, the chemical tags that help control which genes are on. Whether PFAS bind directly to DNA and RNA, and which sequences they prefer, remains an open question.
Why it matters
Knowing whether and how PFAS bind DNA and RNA would help explain why these persistent pollutants are toxic, which matters for anyone exposed through contaminated drinking water. The binding rules uncovered here could inform therapeutic strategies to counter PFAS effects, guide design of DNA-based biosensors for detecting PFAS in water, and help in designing materials that capture them.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Lyle Isaacs
University of Maryland, MD·Chemistry
Synthesize acyclic cucurbit[n]uril (CB[n]) containers that vary in glycoluril building blocks, aromatic walls and solubilizing groups, and map how each change alters binding strength toward drugs and toxins in buffered water.
Timothy Schroeder
Bennington College, VT·Earth & Environmental Science
Characterize how PFAS ("forever chemicals") spread from contamination sources through groundwater, surface water, soils, vegetation and wildlife at Vermont field research sites.
Jay Ponder
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Chemistry
Develop the AMOEBA+ polarizable multipole force field for DNA and RNA, with parameters generated automatically by the Poltype2 software, to model nucleic acid structure, dynamics and interactions.
The school
Florida Atlantic University: 7 labs on PI Pages, $88M a year on research, 124 research doctorates a year.
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