Helical Arrangement of Interstrand Stacked Pyrenes in a DNA Framework

Getting it together: Helical self-organization between oligopyrene strands with 14 consecutive achiral pyrene building blocks embedded in a DNA strand leads to an artificial double helix (see example, oligopyrene regions are shown in dark colors and the flanking DNA regions in light colors). Helicity within the interstrand-stacked oligopyrenes is evident from the observation of exciton-coupled CD signals originating from the pyrene moieties.