Explains mechanism underlying DNA replication
Washington, DC, August 15 -- Chemist Eric T. Kool of Palo Alto, Calif., will be honored on August 22 by the world's largest scientific society for his innovative research on how DNA makes copies of itself. He will receive the 2000 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society at its 220th national meeting in Washington, D.C.
"What we do is make modified DNA molecules that can fool enzymes into making copies even though the [DNA building blocks] are not natural," said Kool, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University.
Kool seeks to understand how the enzymes, called polymerases, work so well. As the body's construction workers, DNA polymerases choose the wrong building block (nucleotide) less than once per million times, he said.
Researchers long thought that the attraction between hydrogen atoms was the mechanism by which polymerases "found" their partners on the DNA double helix. But in a 1997 paper first controversial, now accepted, Kool demonstrated that this actually has little to do with proper pairing.
"Our working hypothesis is what fits, works," said the organic chemist. "What the enzymes do, I think, is surround the double-stranded DNA at its end and use that to make a template for the next pair," he said.
Kool is also developing ways to amplify, or make many copies of, genetic code. "We fool the enzymes this time with very small circles of single-stranded DNA," he explained. "Since the circle has no end, they just go on and on replicating it."
He added that two biotechnology companies now use this amplification to detect genetic mutations in very low concentrations. Kool himself, who describes his field as "limited only by the imagination," aims to apply the technique to genetic therapy - that is, to inhibit genes that are linked to inherited diseases.
The ACS Board of Directors established the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 1984 to recognize and encourage excellence in organic chemistry. Cope was a celebrated chemist and former chairman of ACS. The award consists of $5,000, a certificate and a $40,000 unrestricted research grant.