Titre :Chemical Biology Strategies for Perturbing Carbohydrate Recognition and for Probing Glycan-Processing Enzymes
Endroit : Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, salle D-225, 11h30
Cette conférence sera prononcée par Samy Cecioni, Ph.D. de l'Université Simon Fraser.
Résumé : The field of glycoscience is rapidly maturing and is showing great promise both in understanding the role of glycans in fundamental physiology but also in the development of innovative medicinal approaches. Chemical biology strategies are proving instrumental in advancing our understanding of this complex class of biomolecules. At the cell surface, glycans are presented in a multivalent manner that is critical for adhesion and signaling events. Inside the cell, the glycosylation state of proteins and lipids is controlled by a complex network of glycan-processing enzymes. Perturbation of either of these processes is central to numerous areas of human health. In this seminar, I will first discuss the synthesis of multivalent glycosylated structures and the study of their interaction with glycan-binding proteins from the opportunistic bacteria P. aeruginosa. In a second part, I will discuss the design of chemical tools to study glycan-processing enzymes such as glycoside hydrolases. These enzymes are gaining attention owing to their roles in human diseases such as lysosomal storage disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. I will present a novel chemical biology strategy to generate fluorescence-quenched substrate probes of these glycosidases for live cell monitoring of enzyme activity.
