Bionanotechnology
It is becoming increasingly clear that the new science of bionanotechnology will create a variety of devices that will not only improve existing approaches to biological research, but also augment existing medical diagnosis and treatment.

This new field uses information from molecular biology, chemistry and physics to link biological and non-biological molecules into complex bioassemblies not normally found in nature. In these applications, the goal of bionanotechnology is not only to produce the specificity and telemetry that a soft-landed radio beacon on the moon might exhibit, but also the capacity for detailed and serial analyses of the landing site that a soft-landed robot might exhibit.

No one expects that robotic control of a molecular device will be available anytime soon, but such a device might be preprogrammed to report several findings once its initial target was located. In developing nanoscale assemblies for these biological applications, we find that computer aided design is an essential step in the process. Devices now under development use the tools of computational chemistry (e.g. electronic structure calculation, homology modeling and molecular modeling) in addition to synthetic chemistry, and molecular biology.

Epigenetics
The role of DNA methylation in biology is currently a topic of great interest in the research community. The study of cytosine methylation at CG sites in human DNA has received considerable attention. Those CG sites present in gene control regions have been especially well characterized. The study of CNG methylation in human DNA and the study of CG methylation outside gene control regions has received much less attention, even though these forms of methylation appear to make up the majority of methylation in human cells. In our lab we have been collaborating with scientists in Sweden and Moscow on what role, if any, that this sort of methylation may play in human cells. To this end we are beginning to study the distribution of such sites in normal and cancer cells in order to better understand our findings with transgene-induced methylation at these sites human cells.

It is a privilege to be able to work in such exciting fields and to be able to work with the group of talented M.D.s, postdoctoral fellows and Research Associates who have contributed to our work here at City of Hope. Our work is supported by the NCI postdoctoral fellowship program and their research granting program.