Title: Guanine quadruplexes: a tale of unraveling discoveries in nucleic acid
targeting’

Professor Anne Petitjean
Chemistry Department
Queen’s University

The past 15 years have seen a revolution in nucleic acid structure and function; guanine
quadruplexes, an alternate family of structures of nucleic acids which differs from the
traditionally recognized double-helix, have revealed themselves from curiosities
suspected to occur in obscure fragments of DNA, to a massively present motif in DNA,
RNA and DNA-RNA hybrids in a variety of contexts (e.g., mammals, insects, plants,
viruses). Evidence is increasingly suggesting that guanine quadruplexes are heavily
involved in the regulation of essential processes that play important roles in conditions as
varied as cancers, infectious diseases and neurological disorders.
This presentation will relate the incredible discoveries that are leading to the
realization of the guanine quadruplex motif prominence, together with the tale of our
group’s happy accidental incursions in the field.