Research in Bioorganic Chemistry

The research is focused on understanding structure-dynamics-interaction relationships of carbohydrates in general and glycan-protein interactions in particular. Three different avenues are chosen to this end, viz., (i) organic synthesis; (ii) experimental biophysical techniques, especially NMR spectroscopy; and (iii) molecular simulations, in particular molecular dynamics simulations. We carry out investigations on the following subjects:

• Development of rapid and robust methodology for the determination of carbohydrate structure, i.e., toward fully automatic structure determination by NMR
• Chemical synthesis of oligosaccharides, glycoconjugates, and of protein inhibitors
• In depth studies of conformational dynamics of glycoconjugates found in biologically and medically relevant systems
• Interaction and docking studies of glycoconjugates and of small organic molecules with proteins in general and enzymes in particular with the aim of improving antibiotic uptake in gram-negative bacteria

The research spans from Glycobiology to Biophysics.