Pyrrolidine-amide Oligonucleotide Mimics (POM) were designed to be configurational and conformational mimics of natural nucleic acids. They differ structurally from native nucleic acids in two ways; they have a pyrrolidine ring in place of the furanose sugar, and an amide moiety instead of a phosphodiester linkage. It is anticipated that a proportion of the pyrrolidine nitrogens will be protonated at physiological pH, making the backbone cationic.

POM binds with very high affinity to complementary single stranded RNA and DNA, with a kinetic preference for RNA over DNA. These properties give POM potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications.

The focus of our group's attention is threefold:

• synthesis of the four POM monomers (T, C^Cbz, A^Cbz and G^Cbz)
• solid-phase synthesis of mixed-sequence oligomers
• UV melting and isothermal calorimetry studies