| Claude E. Gagna New York Institute of Technology 
Claude Gagna's recent patent, "Method for Immobilizing Multi-stranded Nucleic Acid Molecules by Modifying More than One Strand
Thereof, and Binding Each Strand to a Solid Support," is the result of many years of dedication and hard work. This invention is
enhancing drug discovery, lowering cost of the drug development process and will help molecular biologists develop cures for diseases
such as cancer.
DNA micro-arrays are universally accepted as one of the most powerful technologies ever conceived by science. Dr. Gagna's novel multi-stranded-helical transitional DNA (and RNA) micro-array represents the next generation of DNA micro-arrays. This invention is a major breakthrough and ahead of its time, according to W. Clark Lambert, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Departments of Pathology and Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. This novel micro-array allows researchers to characterize the complex interaction of hundreds of different drugs and chemicals with thousands of different types of DNA molecules, namely intact unaltered multi-stranded DNA. The micro-array also allows for the characterization of interactions of drugs with different helical structural conformations of DNA and RNA, namely left-handed Z-DNA and right-handed B-DNA. Thus, this invention will help in the development of treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cataracts and Alzheimer's, according to Dr. Lambert. One day, triple-stranded and four-stranded DNA may be used to turn "off" bad genes, such as cancer genes. |
