National Institute of
General Medical Sciences

A startling new view of the chemistry of DNA will be the subject of the 1997 DeWitt Stetten, Jr. Lecture at the National Institutes of Health. On Wednesday, October 22 at 3:00p.m., Dr. Jacqueline K. Barton, Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, will speak on "DNA-Mediated Electron Transfer: Chemistry at a Distance," in the Masur Auditorium of the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center (Building 10) on the NIH campus.

Since graduate school, Dr. Barton has designed and used metal complexes that bind DNA with specificity to study the molecule's structure and dynamics. Using these metal complexes, her laboratory is now challenging a longstanding paradigm that DNA molecules are electron resistors with a series of reports that the DNA double helix can mediate long-range electron transfer reactions, facilitating chemistry at a distance. Ultimately, this work may have important implications for understanding the damage to DNA caused by ultraviolet light and free radicals.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has sponsored the annual Stetten Lecture for 16 years to honor Dr. DeWitt Stetten, Jr., who directed the Institute from 1970 to 1974. Dr. Stetten had a strong commitment to basic research, especially in the areas of genetics, cellular and molecular biology, and chemistry.

The support of basic science is the main mission of NIGMS. Knowledge resulting from the fundamental, non-disease-targeted projects supported by the Institute contributes directly to the progress of research on specific diseases in the other components of NIH. NIGMS supports studies in the areas of cell biology, biophysics, pharmacology, biorelated chemistry, physiology, genetics, and developmental biology.

The Institute has supported Dr. Barton's work since 1983.