Lectures presented at the 39th IUPAC Congress and 86th Conference of
the Canadian Society for Chemistry: Chemistry at the Interfaces, Ottawa,
Canada, 10-15 August 2003
Part III - Chemistry of nucleic acids
Preface
The joint 39th Congress of IUPAC and 86th Conference of the Canadian
Society for Chemistry during August 2003 adopted the theme of "Chemistry
at the Interfaces "to promote the rich interdisciplinarity of the
subject, and has thus provided an ideal forum for a symposium on "Chemistry
of nucleic acids". New developments in this chemistry demonstrate
growing interdependence with disciplines such as biological, medicinal,
and materials sciences, and offer the promise of unimagined future opportunities
and consequences. Furthermore, the date of the event afforded a happy
opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historical paper
by Watson and Crick, which is one of the defining scientific advances
of the 20th century that continues to inspire ongoing endeavors in nucleic
acid chemistry.
The symposium program comprised 20 invited lectures, supported by over
40 poster presentations, and attracted the interest and enthusiastic
participation of numerous delegates. The ensuing papers in this issue
are introduced by a brief overview of the developments and milestones
that have characterized the past 50 years, and portray the diversity
and some of the current activity in this field. These include works
on synthetic design and methodology, targeted synthesis, and structure-function,
and it is hoped that they will serve as a valuable record of a successful
symposium and a future source of insight and inspiration. Thanks are
due to all the participants in the event, and particularly to those
presenters who contributed to this collection.
Andrew M. MacMmillan
Chair, Symposium on "Chemistry of nucleic acids"
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