{"id":2542,"date":"2018-04-24T14:53:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T13:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/the-forum\/?p=2542"},"modified":"2021-11-15T16:19:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T16:19:26","slug":"dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/24\/dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA 65 years on: light switch molecules to diagnose disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>It\u2019s 65 years since Watson and Crick\u00a0published their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/171737a0\">world-changing paper on the structure of DNA<\/a> \u2013 a discovery they and Rosalind Franklin made using a technique called X-ray diffraction. To mark the anniversary we spoke to Dr James Hall, who uses the same technique today to study molecules which light up when they detect damaged DNA. This could pave the way for future diagnostic tests for diseases such as cancer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr James Hall: Light switch molecules to Diagnose Disease\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g0tLirX6pcU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>Dr James Hall is a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the University of Reading\u2019s Department of Pharmacy. His research uses X-ray crystallography to focus on the structure of nucleic acids \u2013 the \u2018molecules of life\u2019 which contain the genetic information for living things \u2013 and how they become damaged. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In March 2018 <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/the-forum\/2018\/03\/21\/global-warming-light-switch-molecules-and-malaria-early-career-researchers-net-prizes\/\">he won a Research Outputs prize<\/a> for his <a href=\"http:\/\/centaur.reading.ac.uk\/66682\/\">2016 paper<\/a> \u00a0which the judges said offered \u201ca new hypothesis into DNA-probe binding with significant applications for future diagnostics\u201d. Although only recently published, the paper has been cited 11 times, showing the impact it is already making in the field.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s 65 years since Watson and Crick\u00a0published their world-changing paper on the structure of DNA \u2013 a discovery they and Rosalind Franklin made using a technique called X-ray diffraction. To&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"&#104;&#116;&#116;&#112;&#115;&#58;&#47;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#46;&#114;&#101;&#97;&#100;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#46;&#97;&#99;&#46;&#117;&#107;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#45;&#98;&#108;&#111;&#103;&#47;&#50;&#48;&#49;&#56;&#47;&#48;&#52;&#47;&#50;&#52;&#47;&#100;&#110;&#97;&#45;&#54;&#53;&#45;&#121;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#115;&#45;&#111;&#110;&#45;&#108;&#105;&#103;&#104;&#116;&#45;&#115;&#119;&#105;&#116;&#99;&#104;&#45;&#109;&#111;&#108;&#101;&#99;&#117;&#108;&#101;&#115;&#45;&#116;&#111;&#45;&#100;&#105;&#97;&#103;&#110;&#111;&#115;&#101;&#45;&#100;&#105;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#115;&#101;&#47;\">Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1785],"tags":[149,241,255,620,675,961],"class_list":["post-2542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture-food-and-health","tag-cancer","tag-diagnostics","tag-dna","tag-neurodegenerative-diseases","tag-pharmacy","tag-x-ray-crystallography"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DNA 65 years on: light switch molecules to diagnose disease - Connecting Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/24\/dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA 65 years on: light switch molecules to diagnose disease - Connecting Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s 65 years since Watson and Crick\u00a0published their world-changing paper on the structure of DNA \u2013 a discovery they and Rosalind Franklin made using a technique called X-ray diffraction. To...Read More &gt;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/24\/dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Connecting Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theuniversityofreading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-24T13:53:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T16:19:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Harrop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UniRdg_Research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UniRdg_Research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Harrop\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/24\/dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/24\/dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Harrop\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/99810845f887cb4c7aa3256ff496fd23\"},\"headline\":\"DNA 65 years on: light switch molecules to diagnose disease\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-24T13:53:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T16:19:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/24\/dna-65-years-on-light-switch-molecules-to-diagnose-disease\/\"},\"wordCount\":184,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"cancer\",\"diagnostics\",\"DNA\",\"neurodegenerative diseases\",\"pharmacy\",\"x ray crystallography\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Agriculture, Food &amp; 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