"On-off" multivalent recognition: degradable dendrons for temporary high-affinity DNA binding.

Now you bind it--now you don't! Chemical degradation of a dendritic scaffold allows multivalent interactions with DNA to be "switched off" as the multivalent array of ligands breaks down into smaller fragments, offering an approach by which a molecule can be temporarily endowed with high affinity for a biological target--an important concept in the development of new synthetic systems to intervene in biological pathways.