DNA's Hidden Power: New Discoveries Could Transform Medicine

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have made a groundbreaking discovery regarding deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, revealing its potential to transform pharmaceutical development. According to the report from Science Daily, DNA, traditionally known for carrying genetic information, can now be harnessed as a tool to create medicines with greater efficiency.

Specific regions of DNA, known as phosphates, have been identified as acting like tiny hands that guide chemical reactions to produce the correct mirror-image version of a compound. This is significant because many medicines are chiral, existing in two mirror-image forms, which can have drastically different effects in the body.

One form may effectively treat a disease, while the other may be ineffective or even harmful. Thus, producing only the desired form presents a considerable challenge in drug development. However, the new DNA-guided method could streamline this process, making it cleaner and more environmentally sustainable.

The research team, led by Assistant Professor Zhu Ru-Yi from the Department of Chemistry, hypothesized that the natural attraction between DNA and proteins, due to the negative charge of DNA’s phosphate groups and the positive charge of many amino acids, could be utilized to control chemical reactions in laboratory settings.

They discovered that certain phosphate groups in DNA can attract positively charged molecules during chemical reactions, aligning them correctly, similar to how a magnet draws metal into place. This phenomenon, known as ion pairing, keeps the reacting molecules close and properly oriented to yield a single, desired mirror-image product.

The researchers further developed a novel approach called PS scanning, systematically replacing individual phosphate sites in the DNA with nearly identical substitutes to identify which phosphates contributed to this guiding effect.

Reduced selectivity when swapping phosphates indicated the importance of the original sites. To validate their findings, they collaborated with Professor Zhang Xinglong from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, who used computer simulations to confirm the experimental results.

The findings were published in Nature Catalysis on October 31, 2025. Assistant Professor Zhu emphasized that while nature does not utilize DNA phosphates as catalysts, their research shows that, if designed appropriately, these phosphates can function as artificial enzymes.

This discovery holds the promise of making chemical manufacturing in pharmaceuticals more sustainable and efficient, particularly in the production of complex, high-value drugs. The research team intends to continue exploring the application of DNA phosphates in designing and producing chiral compounds for the next generation of drug development.