The synthesis of ¹³C labeled dihydroxy acetone (DHA) from ¹³C labeled methanol was accomplished in 4 synthetic Steps. The reactions have been scaled to provide gram quantities labeled DHA. The syntheses of site specifically labeled 2`-β-deoxyadenosine and 2`-β-deoxyguanosine have been achieved using a unified approach to labeling multiple purine sites. The synthesis of both 2`-β-[1,3-<sup>15</sup>N<sub>2</sub>]deoxyguanosine and 2`-β-[2,4,8-¹³C₃-amino,3,9-¹⁵N₄]deoxyguanosine demonstrates the feasibility of this unified route to labeled purine based nucleic acids.