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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 Development of capsular- and lipopolysaccharide based vaccines Research on the biological functions of bacterial and human lectins (carbohydrate-binding proteins) targeting bacterial infections and cancer development Development of novel mycothiol-based tuberculosis antibiotics Synthesis of well-defined heparin fragments for evaluation of specific interactions with proteins involved in the blood-clotting cascade NMR instrumentation - Varian Inova 300MHz, Varian 400MHz System, Varian Inova 500MHz, Varian 500MHz System, Varian 600MHz System Mass Spectrometers - MALDI-TOF MS, Quattro LC-MS/MS, Liquid chromatography time-of-flight MS Small molecule X-ray crystallography - Bruker-AXS SMART Apex CCD three-circle diffractometer Full access to the full range of Conway Institute core technologies Editor of Carbohydrate Research 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. Awarded a grant from the prestigious Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience Has published in high impact journals such as Science 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