Structure, synthesis and recognition of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates

Carbohydrates, also referred to as glycans in biological systems, are often active as glycoconjugates, covalently linked to proteins, lipids, steroids or alkaloids.

The aim of the current research in bioorganic chemistry is to understand structure-dynamics-interaction relationships of carbohydrates and their recognition by proteins.

The project consists of three parts: (i) carbohydrate sequencing by NMR spectroscopy whereby we will develop novel methodology to facilitate automatic NMR-based structure determination of carbohydrates; (ii) chemical synthesis of polysaccharides addressing sterically challenging polysaccharides thereby advancing solution phase methodology, execute highly demanding solid-phase automated glycan assembly of branched polysaccharides and construct by chemical synthesis anchor-tagged polysaccharides to illuminate how polysaccharide biosynthesis takes place in detail; and (iii) elucidate by NMR spectroscopy interactions between glycans and proteins elaborating on novel insight about conformational dynamics of carbohydrates thereby forming the basis for unraveling how these compounds interact with proteins, both from a ligand and a protein point-of-view.

Elucidation of polysaccharides from pathogenic Streptococci, making pertinent glycoconjugate vaccines to combat these bacteria, and understanding of binding processes between bacteriophage proteins and bacterial surface carbohydrates will facilitate progress in the treatment of antimicrobial resistance.