Facile synthesis of nucleic acid-polymer amphiphiles and their self-assembly

A solid-phase synthesis for nucleic acid-polymer amphiphiles is developed. Using this strategy, several DNA-b-polymer amphiphiles are synthesized, and their self-assembly in aqueous solution is investigated. This general method can in principle be extended to nearly all polymers synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization to produce a variety of nucleic acid-polymer conjugates.