Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026

Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates
Published on: March 5, 2019
DNA as a chiral scaffold for asymmetric synthesis
Soyoung Park1, Hiroshi Sugiyama
1Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-oiwakecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
The application of DNA-based hybrid catalysts for enantioselective synthesis has recently emerged. These catalysts, self-assembled from DNA and a metal complex with a specific ligand through supramolecular or covalent anchoring strategies, have demonstrated high enantioselectivity in a variety of carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bond-forming reactions and have expanded their role in asymmetric catalysis. In this review, we summarize the advent and significant progress of DNA-based asymmetric catalysis and discuss remaining challenges in using DNA as a chiral scaffold. We hope that this review will inspire many of today’s active scientists in asymmetric catalysis.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality in Nature
Prochirality
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Reduction of Alkenes: Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...
Diels–Alder Reaction Forming Cyclic Products: Stereochemistry

