LightDyNAmics – DNA as a training platform for photodynamic processes in soft materials

Objectives of the LightDyNAmics project

The main goal of LightDyNAmics was to achieve a complete understanding of the ultrafast dynamical processes at the molecular scale induced by UV light absorption and DNA, and to unveil the mechanisms leading to photodamage of the genetic code. The project transferred this knowledge to a broad class of optoelectronic materials, highly relevant for Europe’s high-tech industries. At the same time, LightDyNAmics trained 15 Early Stage Researchers by crossing the border between theoretical and experimental expertise by performing independent, yet interrelated and complementary research projects focused on three scientific objectives:

• to develop and optimize a variety of complementary experimental and computational methods for the investigation of ultrafast dynamics in multi-chromophore systems;
• to apply these methods to elucidate photoinduced processes in DNA tracts of different size and complexity, from simple nucleobases in the gas phase to genomic DNA, over different timescales from light absorption all the way to the formation of lesions;
• to generalize the acquired knowledge and transfer it to other multi-chromophore, soft materials of fundamental and technological interest, identifying the photoinduced processes, their spectral signatures, their yields, and dynamics.