Christine Cardin will be presenting a Nietzel Visiting Distinguished Faculty Program Seminar titled, "X-ray Crystallography and infrared transient spectroscopy with nucleic acid crystals."

Abstract: Photoactive ruthenium polypyridyl complexes attract worldwide attention because of their potential applications in cancer chemotherapy and because they provide useful tools for studying the fundamentals of electron transfer in DNA. In this talk, the structures of several ruthenium complexes bound to several oligonucleotides will be described. The recent transient infrared spectroscopy (TRIR) study of the photooxidizing [Ru(TAP)₂dppz]²⁺ complex crystallized with the decamer duplex d(TCGGCGCCGA)₂ has provided an insight into the earliest steps in guanine photooxidation and hence, DNA damage.