Nanoparticles Featuring Amino Acid-functionalized Side Chains as DNA Receptors

A family of nanoparticles has been fabricated featuring cationic amino acid‐based side chains. This controlled surface modification provides a tool to investigate the effect of various non‐covalent interactions at the nanoparticle–DNA interface. The binding affinities of these nanoparticles towards DNA were determined using fluorescence, exhibiting more than threefold modulation in binding a 37‐mer DNA strand. The secondary structure of the DNA strand was distorted upon nanoparticle binding, with the extent of distortion dependent on the structure of amino acid side chain.