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Principal Investigator
Professor Stefan Oscarson
Lead Institution
University College Dublin
Research Programme
Description
Carbohydrates are not only nutrition like table sugar and starch or stabilising material like cellulose
or chitin (in crab shells). Specific carbohydrate structures are found on (every) cell surfaces of both
humans and bacteria that have important biological functions involved with the interaction of the
cells with the surrounding environment. We will chemically synthesise such carbohydrate structures
corresponding to bacterial saccharides, which our body will think is a real bacteria and make
antibodies against them, for the development of vaccines, mainly against meningitis. We will also
synthesise human cell surface structures, which are used by bacteria and viruses for attachment so
they can cause an infection. By delivering our synthetic saccharides, the bacteria and viruses will
bind to these structures instead of the structures on our cells and thereby function as an antibiotic.
Cancer cell surface carbohydrate structures are different from those of normal cells. Such structures
will be synthesized and their interaction with carbohydrate-binding proteins investigated to try to
understand their role in cancer development. Heparin is a complex polysaccharide involved in blood
clotting. Synthetic heparin structures will be investigated as improved anti-coagulants.
Industry Partners
Novartis
Carmeda
Research Team Size
Medium: 11 – 49
Expertise
Infrastructure
Key Research Highlights
Contact Details
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Development of capsular- and lipopolysaccharide based vaccines
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Research on the biological functions of bacterial and human lectins (carbohydrate-binding
proteins) targeting bacterial infections and cancer development
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Development of novel mycothiol-based tuberculosis antibiotics
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Synthesis of well-defined heparin fragments for evaluation of specific interactions with proteins
involved in the blood-clotting cascade
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NMR instrumentation - Varian Inova 300MHz, Varian 400MHz System, Varian Inova 500MHz,
Varian 500MHz System, Varian 600MHz System
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Mass Spectrometers - MALDI-TOF MS, Quattro LC-MS/MS, Liquid chromatography time-of-flight
MS
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Small molecule X-ray crystallography - Bruker-AXS SMART Apex CCD three-circle diffractometer
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Full access to the full range of Conway Institute core technologies
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Editor of Carbohydrate Research
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Completed the first stereoselective synthesis of sucrose in 2000. This JACS article was selected as
one of the chemistry highlights of the year by Chemical & Engineering News.
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Awarded a grant from the prestigious Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience
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Has published in high impact journals such as Science
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Member of the Alimentary Glycoscience Research Cluster
Name:
Telephone:
Email:
Web:
Prof. Stefan Oscarson
+353 1 7162318
[email protected]
www.ucd.ie/cscb/main_pages/research/researchers/oscarson_stefan/index.html