4th calixDNA team meeting

The calixDNA project team had today its 4th online meeting from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM, in presence of A. Višnjevac, O. Reinaud, B. Colasson, I. Piantanida, I. Krošl, I. Nikšić-Franjić and C. Thouzé. The central point on the agenda was the final internship report of Corentin Thouzé, who will terminate his internship at the calixDNA project on Aug. 13^th, 2021, as planned. Corentin has wrapped up and presented, in a form of a 35 min long PPT presentation, the results obtained so far on the research of the binding of two calixarene derivatives and their corresponding Cu(II) complexes (supramolecular biomimetic binders, SBBs) to various mono- and polynucleotides. The research involved UV/Vis, fluorometric and CD spectroscopies, as well as thermal denaturation monitoring, which, combined, provided a detailed insight into the chemical behaviour of the studied SBBs in presence of variety of polynucleotide chains, as well as in presence of their building blocks – mononucleotides. The results were put in context of the previously obtained ones, on the series of four closely related SBBs, which are the basis of the MSc thesis of Ena Otković, and of the first calixDNA original scientific paper to be submitted shortly to the special issue of Molecules – an open access journal. The presentation incited a vivid scientific discussion, which, in many aspects, contributed to better understanding of the presented results. One of the conclusions was that Corentin shall continue the research on Ena’s SBBs, by studying binding ability of their copper(II) complexes to polynucleotide chains.

We have briefly discussed the paper in preparation (vide supra) and current project management issues. French team members will, over the two weeks to come, review the manuscript and send their comments and suggestions, so that the paper will be ready for submission in August 2021. A. Višnjevac will, if the circumstances remain favorable to international visit exchange, visit the Lab at the University of Paris, during November/December 2021, in frame of the joint team efforts to speed up the synthesis of the zero generation SBBs, needed for the envisaged recognition, binding and structural studies during the second project year.