Dr Alex Taylor explains: “Nature’s genetic material - Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) and Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) - forms powerful systems for molecular evolution, but is composed of just four or five building blocks. In our lab, we ask what if we could evolve molecules made from a broader chemistry set? We explore this question using ‘synthetic genetics’ – cell-free systems in which heredity and evolution are performed by artificial polymers called Xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs).
“As well as addressing fundamental questions in synthetic biology, we aim to explore the potential for XNAs as the basis of next-generation molecular tools and technologies for use in precision medicine. Thanks to decades of research in RNA biology, it is increasingly clear that nucleic acids are major players in virtually every aspect of molecular biology, doing far more than just carrying information in the cell.
“Though we can rapidly sequence and synthesize nucleic acids, our ability to intervene when things go wrong in disease and precisely modulate their levels in living cells remains limited. In my research, we are exploring the evolution and engineering of XNA-based molecular tools to precisely target disease-associated RNAs and control their activity therapeutically.
“Synthetic biology - building chemical and biological systems from the ground up - offers profound insights and deeper appreciation of the emergent properties of matter. By expanding the ‘central dogma’ of molecular biology - at least in the test-tube - we can apply powerful Darwinian approaches to synthetic chemistry and explore new chemical landscapes to discover and engineer next-generation medicines.