I am interested in the chemistry and biochemistry of DNA and RNA, with special regard to novel structural and functional properties for these nucleic acids. Two major areas of interest are:

New catalytic activities for DNA and RNA, and control of ribozyme activity
Recently, it has been established that specific DNA sequences are capable of catalyzing a variety of chemical/biochemical reactions, in a manner analogous to catalytic RNAs (ribozymes). We have used in vitro selection methods from random-sequence DNA and RNA libraries to define new catalytic DNAs (“DNAzymes”).