Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society
Discover Our Research Society
Explore with us.
Welcome to the Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society, where we all work together toward common goals, reaching for the stars.Â
We are impassioned to help bring this new field to enthusiastic learners like you.Â
There are still many areas in this crystallography field to explore. So, come. Join us. We welcome you in open arms.
How to Target Cancerous DNA
Central Dogma is the guide. It's simple:
Without functional DNA, cancer cells die
Scientists have been working on anti-cancer medical drugs for years. The problem is that healthy cells and cancer cells are hard to tell apart. Well, to differentiate the two, we can specifically target their nucleic acids (DNA/RNA) sequences and structures. In order to determine their structures for targeting, we need to crystalize them. Once their structures are determined, medical drugs can be designed and discovered to target the cancerous nucleic acids and their protein complexes.
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Once the DNA in a cancer cell is inhibited or stopped, RNA and protein production is disrupted, and the cancer cell dies.
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Think about it: Without a cookbook (DNA), how would a chef cook?
Annual International Conference
American Crystallographic Association (ACA)
STARS-leader, Susanna Huang, performed Selenium-modified DNA crystallographic research and presented her work at the international ACA conference in Cincinnati in the summer of 2019.
US Crystal Growing Competition:
Overall Category
Members spend around 6 weeks, starting in mid-October, crystallizing a large, high-quality single crystal of aluminum potassium sulfate for a chance to win $200.
Aluminum potassium sulfate single crystal grown by Susanna Huang that placed 2nd at the national US Crystal Growing Competition for its crystal quality.
US Crystal Growing Competition:
Coolest Crystal category
Students can also compete in the "Coolest Crystal" category where adding dyes or encapsulating an object or insect inside the crystal (or anything else that is creative and beautiful) will earn competitors a chance to win cash prizes as well.
Aluminum potassium sulfate crystal grown by Susanna Huang that placed 11th at the national US Crystal Growing Competition for the Coolest Crystal category.
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Our Goal
We strive to expose vanguard macromolecular crystallography to members and to nurture their curiosity and passion in crystallization, structure determination, macromolecular modeling, bioinformatics, small molecule design, bioactivity study, and drug discovery.