Our laboratory focuses on non-canonical DNA structures, G-quadruplexes, i-motifs, and tandem repeats. Such sequences are found at telomeres and oncogene promoters, among other regions. Small molecule ligands strongly affect fold and stability of non-canonical DNA and may act as anticancer therapeutics. We strive to determine the structural details of DNA and DNA-ligand complexes and understand the reasons behind structural diversity of DNA. Our favorite techniques include X-ray crystallography, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopies, circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), gel electrophoresis, and synthetic work.
If you are interested in working in the Yatsunyk lab:
send Liliya an email at lyatsun1
stop by her office in SC 286 or the lab SC 285
Lab News 2025
Liliya and Eric attended International 9th International Meeting on Quadruplex Nucleic Acids. Liliya talked about our five tetrad G4s and Eric about his favorite 2x motif left handed G4s.
Katleo, Andrew and Erin attended ACS MARM conference where Andrew delivered a talk and Katleo and Erin presented a poster. Talk and poster described our progress toward understanding left-handed G4 structures.
The lab welcomed in the summer two new members: Emily Sun and Sarah Fofana. Sara is a high school student who is working in our lab as part of ACS SEED project
Congratulations to Gwen Lam, Kailey Martin, and Sawer McCarthy on publishing their paper titled "Conformationla Change in a four-tetrad DNA G-quadruplex upon Intercalation of a Small-molecule ligand PyDH2" in Agnewandte Chemie 2025
Congratulations to Abdullah Ali and Maya Newman-Toker - our graduating seniors!
Congratulation to Eric Xing, Andrew Hendrickson, and Paul Seth on publising the paper titled Interaction of N-methylmesoporphyrin IX with a hybrid left/right-handed G-quadruplex motif from the promoter of the SLC2A1 gene in Nucleic Acids Res. 2025
The lab welcomed in the spring three new members: Erin Coyle, Jennifer Zhao, and Katleo Pule
Congratulations to Eric Xing on receiving Stanley Adamson Award. This award was established in memory of Stanley D. Adamson ’65 and is awarded each spring to a well-rounded junior majoring in chemistry or biochemistry, who, in the opinion of the department, gives the most promise of excellence and dedication in the field.
Congratulations to Gwen Lam on receiving ACS Award in Biochemistry for her excellent performance Biochem classes and in research.
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