SBIR/STTR Phase I: Synthesis of Environmental Reference Standards

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to develop novel approaches for the synthesis of carcinogen-modified oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) and carcinogen deoxynucleoside monomer adducts that can be used in physical, chemical, conformational, and biological studies, and as reference standards in both academic and commercial work. These reagents are difficult to acquire and they are available to only a few large laboratories with sufficient resources to synthesize them. The proposed methodology will reduce the cost of synthesizing these types of materials substantially, resulting in the widespread availability of these important biological components on a cost-effective commercial scale. One of the attractive features of the proposed methodology is that it will be applicable not only to carcinogen-modified ODNs, but will also be employed for the construction of ODNs modified with other types of agents, such as, tethers and dyes. Tethered ODNs can be attached to arrays and used as targets for gene sequence analysis. The commercial applications of this project are straightforward and involve direct sales of the modified ODNs and carcinogen adduct monomers to the academic community for fundamental research investigations and to industrial firms for environmental monitoring.