threose nucleic acid tagged posts

Team engineers New Enzyme to Produce Synthetic Genetic Material

John Chaput
“This is just the beginning,” says John Chaput, UC Irvine professor of pharmaceutical sciences. “We’re not just improving on existing drugs. We’re developing a whole new platform for creating therapies that aren’t possible with current technology.” Steve Zylius / UC Irvine

Discovery advances development of new therapeutic options for cancer and other diseases. A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has engineered an efficient new enzyme that can produce a synthetic genetic material called threose nucleic acid. The ability to synthesize artificial chains of TNA, which is inherently more stable than DNA, advances the discovery of potentially more powerful, precise therapeutic options to treat cancer and autoimmune, metabolic and infectious diseases.

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