To serve our community, we have developed the selenium-atom specific derivatization of nucleic acids for crystallographic studies. We have discovered that virtually without any perturbations, the incorporated Se-atoms on nucleic acids can (I) rationally solve the phasing problem and (II) significantly facilitate nucleic acid crystallization (even with higher resolution and much larger crystals) in many cases, including protein-nucleic acid complexes.

Currently, we are looking for collaborators and would be happy to offer free samples of Se-DNAs and Se-RNAs for your structure-and-function investigations. If you are interested, please contact us at [email protected]