DNA recognition with self-assembled peptide helicates

Abstract

Helicates, first described by Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn more than twenty years ago, display promising antimicrobial and antitumoral effects, but despite their compelling biological properties, the development of helicates into viable chemotherapeutic agents has been hampered by the lack of versatile and efficient stereoselective synthetic methods. In this thesis we describe the application of non-natural peptides containing the 2,2´-bipyridine ligand as platforms for the programmed self-assembly of DNA-binding metallopeptide helicates.