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Abstract— We have developed a procedure called a plaque reduction assay to assess the biological activity of duplex circular DNA modified by covalent adduct formation with psoralen derivatives. The replicating form (RF) of bacteriophage DNA modified by photochemical addition of a psoralen derivative was introduced into bacterial cells using the CaCI2 transfection method. The transfected cells. plated upon a confluent lawn of cells permissive for the bacteriophage in the inoculum, provided a measure of the reduction in infectivity of the RF DNA which resulted from its covalent modification. Use of this assay is illustrated in studies which screened and compared the activities of several recently synthesized psoralen derivatives. We describe two new compounds. β‐(8‐psoralenoxy)‐ethanol and β‐(8‐psoralenoxy)ethylamine that are significantly more active than either 8‐methoxypsoralen or trioxsalen in the biological assay