A self-organizing system composed of two oligopyrene strands that leads to the formation of an interstrand helical stack embedded in a double strand of DNA has been designed. Fluorescence and CD spectroscopy show that helical organization takes place in a hybrid containing 14 consecutive achiral pyrene building blocks but not within the respective single strands nor in hybrids containing 6 or less pyrene residues.

This work was carried out in the group of Prof. Robert Häner.

References:

• V. L. Malinovskii, F. Samain, R. Häner;
  "Helical Arrangement of Interstrand Stacked Pyrenes in a DNA Framework"
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46, 4464-4467, (2007); doi:10.1002/anie.200700891.