Design of Sequence‐Specific DNA‐Binding Ligands

Double‐stranded DNA can be viewed as a multifunctional, modular receptor that can be read sequence‐selectively in a digital way (base pair per base pair) by a complementary, similarly modular ligand. This principle has been exploited in several approaches to design sequence‐specific DNA‐binding ligands, such as triplex‐forming oligonucleotides, peptide nucleic acids and minor groove binding polyamides.