Aminopyrimidine Stilbenes
Jiseung Yoon (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
Aminopyrimidine stilbenes as potential fluorescent molecular probes for DNA
The purpose of this project is development of novel aminopyrimidine stilbenes (APS) as potential molecular probes for nucleic acid detection. There is an increasing interest and need for reliable methods of detecting DNA as an important diagnostic tool with important scientific and economic implications for biomedical, human and life sciences and allied fields. We have designed aminopyrimidine stilbenes so that the aminopyrimidine subunit facilitates molecular recognition of genetic materials while the styryl portion provides an optical response, such as, fluorescence or color changes. We hypothesize that molecular recognition occurs via a hydrogen bonding interaction between nucleic acids and the aminopyrimidine stilbene.