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报告人：Prof. Shankar Balasubramanian
Universityof Cambridge, UK
Structure and function of G-quadruplexes
DNA is structurally dynamic in ways that have a consequence for biological processes. In this lecture I will discuss four-stranded DNA structures, called the G-Quadruplexes, that can be formed from G-rich, single-stranded DNA. Biophysical and structural experiments have shown G-quadruplexes can be stable under near-physiological conditions in buffer. Synthetic organic probe molecules and engineered proteins have been invaluable for the exploration of G-quadruplexes. I will discuss the evidence that G-quadruplexes actually form in human cells, along with our current understanding of what they do in biological systems and the molecular basis for how they may achieve this.
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Sir Shankar Balasubramanian is the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior group leader at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute. He works on the chemistry, structure and function of nucleic acids. He is a co-inventor of the leading next generation DNA sequencing methodology, Solexa sequencing (now Illumina) that has made routine, accurate, low-cost sequencing of human genomes a reality and has revolutionised biology. He has invented chemistry to decode several modified (epigenetic) DNA bases and DNA secondary structures (G-quadruplexes) in the genome and has made seminal contributions towards the understanding of their dynamics and function. His work on small molecule recognition of nucleic acids has revealed molecular mechanisms that can be exploited to modulate the biology of cancer. His collective contributions span fundamental chemistry and its application to the biological and medical sciences. Sir Shankar was knighted in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours in 2017 for his services to science and medicine and awarded the Royal Society’s Royal Medal in 2018. In 2021, he was awarded the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize jointly with David Klenerman and the 2022 Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences jointly with David Klenerman and Pascal Mayer for their work on sequencing technologies. In 2023, he was elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences.![]()
