Click Chemistry
Click chemistry is a versatile technique that can be used for the synthesis of a variety of conjugates. Virtually it can be applied to any biomolecules.
With respect to oligonucleotide labeling with small molecules, such as fluorescent dyes, biotin, and alike click chemistry opens doors to a whole "new world" of exciting and so far unimaginable or de facto commercially rather unrealizable molecule specifications.
The term ‘Click Chemistry’ has been coined by Nobel Laureate K. Barry Sharpless to describe the [3+2] cycloaddition between alkynes and azides (1). The two components - azido and alkyne groups - are nearly never encountered in natural biomolecules. Hence, conjugation reactions arrive at a remarkable degree of selectivity and specificity.
Applying this concept on, and further developing it in the field of Nucleic Acid modification Thomas Carell´s work has been turning click chemistry into a very hot topic for oligonucleotide labeling.
Respective citations have been, are, and will be growing rapidly.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Carell is one of the founders of baseclick GmbH, headquartered in Tutzing/Munich. Turning his expertise into a successful business idea, baseclick GmbH was granted the basic patent on copper-catalyzed click reactions on nucleic acids by the European Patent Office in 2010. metabion has been offered a license for the respective labeling processes including an extended collaboration, which we happily assumed.
Always striving to be at the forefront of technical improvements in order to serve our customers best, metabion has secured a worldwide license for employing this interesting chemistry on producing modified oligonucleotides from baseclick GmbH.
Additionally and by using the same technology platform, click chemistry also allows for multiple labeling of polymerized DNA strands via incorporation of Alkyne-dNTPs (triphosphates) followed by post-synthetic click reactions at a so far unmatched efficiency level.
What we offer
“ready-to-use/fully labeled” custom oligonucleotides
Having successfully introduced this additional labeling procedure for synthetic Nucleic Acids and other biomolecules into our custom synthesis operations, we are now able to offer significantly increased flexibility in terms of
- multiple labeling of oligonucleotides (2 or more modifications)
- producing modified oligonucleotides exceeding a critical sequence length.
While in the past state-of-the-art chemistry and technologies either did not allow for the above options at all or if anything not in a commercially reasonable and affordable way, we are happy to provide new solutions for your innovative ideas.
“ready-to-click-it-yourself” custom oligonucleotides
Moreover, we can provide you with alkyne-modified oligonucleotides to be labeled at your end by “clicking” the desired “Azide-modification”. Click here for our Azide-portfolio.
“modimerization” solutions
In line with above´s “click it yourself” approach, we can also supply you with Alkyne Nucleotides(triphosphates) to be incorporated into DNA during polymerization reactions (PCR, reverse transcription, nick-translation, etc.). This prepares the produced DNA strands for post-synthetic “click” conjugations to azid-activated labels – a very elegant and efficient way of “modimerizing” DNA strands.
It´s our aspiration to be your “one-stop-shop” for realizing innovative projects. Hence, we offer not only Alkyne Nucleotides, and an attractive Azide-portfolio, but also a polymerizing enzyme suitable to incorporate modified nucleotides.
Applications
Extended means of (multiple) labeling of biomolecules such as Nucleic Acids (DNA/RNA), peptides, proteins, and antibodies will have a vigorous effect on the following areas (making no claim to be exhaustive):
- Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH)
- qPCR-Assays
- DNA/RNA Microarrays
- Bioconjugation to Nanoparticles
- Fluorescence Microscopy
- Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA)
- Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS)
- Flow Cytometry (FCM), Cell Tracking and Cell-based Assays
- Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)
1. Hartmuth C. Kolb Dr., M. G. Finn Prof., K. Barry Sharpless Prof. Click Chemistry: Diverse Chemical Function from a Few Good Reactions. Angewandte Chemie. DOI: 10.1002/1521-3773(20010601)40:11<2004::AID-ANIE2004>3.0.CO;2-5, 2001.