Abstract
Rapid preparation of polysaccharides is by automated glycan assembly (AGA) [1] using a synthesizer [2] provides access to diverse glycans as large as 151-mers [3]. Accelerated synthesis methods [4] now used to synthesize complex glycans including challenging cis-linked polysaccharides [5] are enabling fundamental investigations into the structure and function of polysaccharides. Synthetic glycans are key in combination with single molecule imaging, [6] molecular modelling and other physical methods to characterize carbohydrate structure [7-9]. We use synthetic polysaccharides to address fundamental questions of carbohydrate structure and folding and material science [10-12]. Synthetic glycans can now be used to construct 3-D shapes from first principles [13] and open a new field for engineering materials from scratch.
Full abstract with references HERE.
Brief Bio
Peter H. Seeberger, a chemist, was a tenured professor at MIT and ETH Zurich before becoming director at the Max-Planck Institute in Potsdam in 2009. Since 2021, he is a Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG). His research spanning topics from engineering to immunology has been documented in >660 journal articles and >60 patents was recognized with >40 international awards. Peter Seeberger supports open access publishing as the Editor-in-Chief of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is a co-founder of the Tesfa-Ilg Foundation that works in Ethiopia and nine successful companies.