270218 VO Nucleoside and Nucleic Acid Chemistry (2021W)

The lecture will focus on the structural and synthetic aspects of the chemistry of nucleic acids and of the building blocks of life, nucleosides and nucleotides. We will study the different molecular components of nucleosides: sugar, nucleobases, phosphodiesters all the way up to the structure of nucleic acids, in their single-stranded and double-stranded forms. This will allow us to understand how chemists came up with synthetic methods to produce nucleosides and nucleic acids and how they brought about chemical modifications too. We will discuss in which therapeutical context chemical modifications to nucleosides and nucleic acids are relevant, where they can be introduced and what their effects are. We will briefly talk about the biosynthesis of nucleosides and nucleic acids. Finally, a large portion of the lecture will be dedicated to modern methods for DNA and RNA synthesis.

This is the more chemistry-oriented counterpart of the lecture "Nucleic Acid Biotechnology", available in the Summer Semester.