This thesis is focused on one of the major goals in biological chemistry the development of artificial DNA binding agents that can mimic the DNA recognition properties of transcription factors. These synthetic molecules could potentially modulate the gene expression, thus having great value as therapeutic tools.
Furthermore, this thesis also describes new strategies to control the interaction of these molecules with the DNA by using specific external signals, so that these agents would carry out their activity only in the right place at the right moment.
Some of these results have been published in prestigious chemical journals, such as Angewandte Chemie International Edrition, Nature Communications, or Chemical Communications.
The MetBioCat research group has a comprehensive research program in the area of Chemical biology, focusing on the development of new chemical tools for controlling and/or sensing biological processes that could be applied in the fields of molecular and cell biology or biomedicine.