ScienceSeptember 2, 2026

homopolymers

HO-mo-pah-li-merz

Definition

Chemical structures, such as DNA sequences, consisting of a long, repeating chain of the same individual monomer unit.

Etymology

Derived from the Greek 'homos' meaning 'same' and 'polymer' meaning 'many parts,' first appearing in scientific literature in the early 20th century to describe polymers composed of identical repeating units.

In the news

In this article, homopolymers are cited as one of the specific sequence factors that the ordering platform screens for to assess the difficulty of synthesizing a piece of DNA.

Researchers Gain Faster Access to Complex DNA as Integrated DNA Technologies and Ansa Biotechnologies Expand Ordering Platform

Read the full article ↗

BioSpace

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