Group News
May 10, 2023
Chris graduates with PhD: Chris defended his thesis and graduated with PhD degree from Binghamton University. Congrats Chris!
March 22, 2023
Chris receives Graduate Student Excellence Award: Chris received the 2023 Binghamton University Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research. Congrats Chris!.
March 9, 2023
Invited Lecture: Eriks delivered an invited talk "Amide-Modified Oligonucleotides for Chemical Control of Functional RNAs" at Eli Lilly and Company.
May 8, 2023
Paper published: Chris, Motiar and Vipin published a paperTriplex-Forming Peptide Nucleic Acid Controls Dynamic Conformations of RNA Bulgesin Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congrats Chris, Motiar and Vipin!
December 29, 2022
Paper published: Michael, Julien, Venu, Praveen, Lamorna and Chandan published a paperAmide Modifications in the Seed Region of the Guide Strand Improve the On-Target Specificity of Short Interfering RNAin ACS Chemical Biology. Congrats Michael, Julien, Venu, Praveen, Lamorna and Chandan!
May 31, 2022
Paper published: Chris, in collaboration with colleagues from Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, published a paperExtended 2-Guanidyl Pyridine PNA Nucleobase for Triple-Helical Hoogsteen Recognition of Cytosine in Double Stranded RNAin Chemical Communications. Congrats Chris!
May 31, 2022
Paper published: Julien and Chandan published a paperOptimization of Automated Synthesis of Amide-Linked RNAin ACS Omega. Congrats Julien and Chandan!
February 28, 2022
Paper published: Venu, Praveen and Lamorna published a paperAmide Internucleoside Linkages Are Well Tolerated in Protospacer Adjacent Motif-Distal Region of CRISPR RNAsin ACS Chemical Biology. Congrats Venu, Praveen and Lamorna!
December 16, 2021
Paper published: Nikita and Ilze published a paperCellular uptake of 2-aminopyridine-modified peptide nucleic acids conjugated with cell-penetrating peptidesin Biopolymers. Congrats Nikita and Ilze!
November 1, 2021
New Project funded! Our group has received an R21 award from NIAID "Targeting SARS-CoV-2 RNA Pseudoknots Using Triplex-Forming Peptide Nucleic Acids".
August 25, 2021
Eriks received the 2021 Melville L. Wolfrom Award from the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Atlanta. The Award recognizes individuals who have provided outstanding service to the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry and the field of carbohydrate chemistry.
June 11, 2021
Paper published: Nikita and Diana, in collaboration with colleagues from FIBER, Konan University in Japan, published a paper
Triple-Helical Binding of Peptide Nucleic Acid Inhibits Maturation of Endogenous MicroRNA-197
in ACS Chemical Biology. Congrats Nikita and Diana!
June 7, 2021
Paper published: Chris, Nikita and Justin published a paper
The 2-Aminopyridine Nucleobase Improves Triple-Helical Recognition of RNA and DNA When Used Instead of Pseudoisocytosine in Peptide Nucleic Acids
in Biochemistry. Congrats Chris, Nikita and Justin!
May 13, 2021
Congratulations Nikita and Julien on receiving PhD degrees! Best of luck in your future endeavors!
April 21, 2021
Paper published: Nikita and Justin, in collaboration with colleagues from Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, published a paper
Pyridazine Nucleobase in Triplex-Forming PNA Improves Recognition of Cytosine Interruptions of Polypurine Tracts in RNA
in ACS Chemical Biology. Congrats Nikita and Justin!
January 13, 2021
Paper published: Nikita, in collaboration with colleagues from Elizabethtown College and Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, published a paper
Extended Peptide Nucleic Acid Nucleobases Based on Isoorotic Acid for the Recognition of A–U Base Pairs in Double-Stranded RNA
in Chemistry - A European Journal. Congrats Nikita!
October 28, 2020
Paper published: Chris published a paper
Impact of Chirality and Position of Lysine Conjugation in Triplex-Forming Peptide Nucleic Acids
in ACS Omega. Congrats Chris!
August 10, 2020
Eriks wins ACS Award: Eriks has been selected to receive the 2021 Melville L. Wolfrom Award from the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry, American Chemical Society. The Award recognizes individuals who have provided outstanding service to the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry and the field of carbohydrate chemistry.
July 22, 2020
Paper published: Vipin and Nikita published a paper
Triplex‐Forming Peptide Nucleic Acids with Extended Backbones
in ChemBioChem. Congrats Vipin and Nikita!
July 13, 2020
Paper published: Venu and Eriks published a paper Amide-Modified RNA: Using Protein Backbone to Modulate Function of Short Interfering RNAs
in Accounts of Chemical Research. Their Account was featured as a Cover Picture of the September issue of the Journal.
November 20, 2019
Paper published: Venu and Julien published a paper Synthesis and Biological Activity of Short Interfering RNAs Having Several Consecutive Amide Internucleoside Linkages
in Chemistry - A European Journal. Congrats Venu and Julien!
October 14, 2019
Eriks delivered an invited talk "Sequence Selective Recognition of Double-Stranded RNA by Cationic Nucleobase and Backbone-Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids"
at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society in Munich, Germany.
September 20, 2019
Paper published: Nikita, in collaboration with colleagues from Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis,
Elizabethtown College and University of Rochester, published a paper Synthesis and RNA-Binding Properties of
Extended Nucleobases for Triplex-Forming Peptide Nucleic Acids
in Journal of Organic Chemistry. Congrats Nikita!
February 1, 2019
Our group has received a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA R35 GM130207, $2,040,290 for 5 years) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to support our entire research portfolio on Chemical Approaches to Control the Function of Regulatory RNAs. This award will support two long-standing research programs in our lab on amide-modified RNA and on sequence selective recognition of RNA via triplex forming peptide nucleic acids.
The goals of MIRA R35 Outstanding Investigator Awards are to increase the stability of funding for NIGMS supported investigators, enhance their ability to take on ambitious scientific projects and approach problems more creatively, and increase flexibility for investigators to follow important new research directions, while reducing the time spent on writing and reviewing grant applications. The current award to our group is the first R35 award received by Binghamton University.
Congratulations to everyone for making this happen!
August 27-30, 2018
Congratulations Venu on the 1st Place Poster Award in the Postdoc Category at the XXIII International Roundtable on Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids UC San Diego, La Jolla, California. Julien and Nikita also presented posters at this meeting.
January 3, 2018
Paper published: Irina, Venu, Daniel and Samwel in collaboration with Dharmacon, Vandebilt and
Rochester researchers have published a paper A Single Amide Linkage in the Passenger Strand Suppresses
Its Activity and Enhances Guide Strand Targeting of siRNAs
in ACS Chemical Biology. Congrats Irina,
Venu, Daniel and Samwel!
September 27, 2017
Paper published: In collaboration with Scott Kennedy (University of Rochester) Irina has published a
paper 2-Methoxypyridine as a Thymidine Mimic in Watson--Crick Base Pairs of DNA and PNA: Synthesis, Thermal
Stability, and NMR Structural Studies
in ChemBioChem. Congrats Irina!
August 21, 2017
Paper published: Daniel and Samwel in collaboration with Dharmacon, Vandebilt and Rochester researchers
have published a paper Amide linkages mimic phosphates in RNA interactions with proteins and are well tolerated
in the guide strand of short interfering RNAs
in Nucleic Acids Research. Congrats Daniel and Samwel!
August 1, 2017
NSF grant application funded: Our group has been awarded a grant totaling $502K from the National Science Foundation to work on a collaborative research project: Nucleobase-Modified Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) for Sequence Selective Triple-Helical Recognition of Non-Coding Ribonucleic Acid (RNA). The project is a partnership with Dr. James A. MacKay who received a complementary award totaling $196K from the National Science Foundation to support related activities with undergraduates at Elizabethtown College.
July 21, 2017
Paper published: Venu has published a paper Concurrent Hydrogenation of Three Functional Groups Enables
Synthesis of C3'-Homologated Nucleoside Amino Acids
in Organic Letters. Congrats Venu!
May 19, 2017
Congratulations Diana and Samwel on successful defense of PhD thesis and graduation!
December 17, 2016
Paper published: In collaboration with Dennis McGee (Biology) Diana and Yannis have published a
paper Sequence-selective recognition of double-stranded RNA and enhanced cellular uptake of cationic
nucleobase and backbone-modified peptide nucleic acids
in RNA journal. Congrats Diana and Yannis!
December 1, 2016
Paper published: In collaboration with colleagues from FIBER, Konan University in Kobe, Japan,
Diana has co-authored a paper Triplex-forming PNA modified with unnatural nucleobases: the role of
protonation entropy in RNA binding
in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Congrats Diana!
November 23, 2016
Eriks receives 2016 Chancellors award for Scholarship and Creative Activities.
September 3, 2016
Paper published: In collaboration with Dennis McGee (Biology) Diana has published a paper Synthesis
and properties of peptide nucleic acid labeled at the N-terminus with HiLyte Fluor 488 fluorescent dye
in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. Congrats Diana!
August 17, 2016
Paper published: Samwel has published a paper Fluorescent 2-Aminopyridine Nucleobases for Triplex-Forming Peptide Nucleic
Acids
in ChemBioChem. Congrats Samwel!
July 26, 2016
Eriks delivered an invited talk Cationic Nucleobase and Backbone-Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids for
Sequence-Selective Recognition of Double-Stranded RNA
at the 2016 Telluride Workshop on Nucleic Acid
Chemistry in Telluride, CO.
July 6, 2016
Eriks delivered an invited talk Sequence-Selective Recognition of Double-Stranded RNA and
Enhanced Cellular Uptake of Cationic Nucleobase and Backbone-Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids
at the FIBER International Summit for Nucleic Acids in Kobe, Japan.
June 24, 2016
Brulinda and Ervin presented posters at the annual NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program closing meeting.
June 16, 2016
Paper published: In collaboration with colleagues from FIBER, Konan University in Kobe,
Japan, Diana has co-authored a paper Triplex-forming peptide nucleic acid modified with
2-aminopyridine as a new tool for detection of A-to-I editing
in Chemical Communications.
The paper was featured on the Back Cover Image of June 28 issue of Chemical Communications.
Congrats Diana!
March 18, 2016
Diana and Yanni presented posters at the 3nd Annual Symposium on RNA Science held by The RNA Institute, University at Albany.
January 12, 2016
Paper published: In collaboration with colleagues from FIBER, Konan
University in Kobe, Japan, Diana has co-authored a paper Nucleobase-Modified
PNA Suppresses Translation by Forming a Triple Helix with a Hairpin Structure
in mRNA In Vitro and in Cells
in Angewandte Chemie. The paper was selected as
the Front Cover Image of January 18 issue of Angewandte Chemie. Congrats Diana!
May 27, 2015
Samwel received the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. Congrats Samwel!
March 20, 2015
Diana and Samwel presented posters at the 2nd Annual Symposium on RNA Science held by The RNA Institute, University at Albany.
March 18, 2015
Samwel received the Binghamton University Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching. Congrats Samwel!
January 13, 2015
Eriks delivered an invited talk Sequence-Selective Recognition of
Double-Stranded RNA Using Cationic Peptide Nucleic Acids
at the
IUPAC 10th International Symposium on Bio-Organic Chemistry in Pune,
India.
August 1, 2014
Funding Success: Our group has received an NSF research award (CHE 1406433, $414,637 for three years) to continue the project on triple helical recognition of double-stranded RNA by peptide nucleic acids. The goal of this project is to develop new methods for molecular recognition of and functional interference with biologically relevant double-stranded RNA. The project involves collaboration with structural biochemists at University at Albany. In a long term, the project may open the door to new ways for targeting double-stranded RNA in live cells, which has been a long-standing fundamental problem and practical limitation in RNA biochemistry.
June 19, 2014
Eriks delivered an invited talk Sequence-Selective Recognition of
Double-Stranded RNA Using Triple Helix Forming Peptide Nucleic Acids
at
the Nucleic Acid Research & Development Conference in San Diego.
May 9, 2014
Paper published: In collaboration with colleagues from Thermo Fisher and
Vanderbilt University our group has published a paper Amides are excellent
mimics of phosphate internucleoside linkages and are well tolerated in short
interfering RNAs
in Nucleic Acids Research. The paper reports an intriguing
finding that amide-modified siRNAs may be more active than the native ones.
Congrats Daniel and Selvam!
April 1, 2014
Funding Success: Our group has received an NIH award (R01 GM071461, ~$1,5 million for four years) to continue research on the recently discovered biological activity of amide-modified RNA. The goal of this project is to create novel research tools and compounds for therapeutic applications of modified short interfering RNAs, while looking for new fundamental insights into structure and function of RNA. The project involves collaboration with structural biochemists at Vanderbilt University and University of Rochester and RNA biologists at Dharmacon (GE Life Sciences). In a long term, the project may open the door for development of new drugs for diseases where the traditional pharmaceutics have been less successful.
January 7, 2014
Paper published: In collaboration with colleagues from Thermo Fisher and
University of Rochester our group has published a paper Synthesis, biophysical
studies and RNA interference activity of RNA having three consecutive amide linkages
in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. Congrats Paul!
November 13-15, 2013
Eriks delivered a plenary talk on molecular recognition of double-stranded RNA using chemically modified PNA at the 40th International Symposium of Nucleic Acid Chemistry (ISNAC2013) at Kanagawa University in Yokohama, Japan. As part of the weeklong lecture tour, Prof. Rozners also delivered invited talks on amide-modified RNA at Konan University in Kobe and Gunma University in Kiryu.
October 8, 2013
Paper published: Thomas and Artem have published a paper Improvement of
sequence selectivity in triple helical recognition of RNA by phenylalanine-derived PNA
in Artificial DNA, PNA & XNA. Congrats Thomas and Artem!
May 30, 2013
Paper published: In collaboration with Christof Grewer (Chemistry) and Dennis
McGee (Biology) our group has published a paper Sequence Selective Recognition
of Double-Stranded RNA at Physiologically Relevant Conditions Using PNA-Peptide
Conjugates
in ACS Chemical Biology. Congrats Toyosi, Thomas and Diana!
November 4, 2012
Paper published: A research communication by Thomas and Pankaj was published in Angewandte Chemie and highlighted as a Very Important Paper (VIP). Only a small number of papers, which receive the highest evaluation from all of the reviewers, are designated as VIP in Angewandte Chemie. The paper describes a discovery made by our group that 2-aminopyridine modified PNAs form exceptionally stable and sequence selective complexes with double-stranded RNA. The modified PNA displays unique RNA selectivity by having two orders of magnitude higher affinity for the double-stranded RNAs than for the same DNA sequences. Thus, PNA may have unique and previously underappreciated potential for recognition of biologically relevant RNAs. Congrats Thomas and Pankaj!
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© Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
Updated 11/23/2018
By Monika Roznere
Photos: Jonathan Cohen and group members