Foldamer glycoconjugates for bacterial adhesin inhibition
Duration: 4 weeks to 12 months depending on the type of internship (can be adjusted to suit the interest of potential candidates)
Detalhes
BACKGROUND
Antivirulence agents aim to circumvent resistance by disarming the pathogen as opposed to affecting viability. A common strategy consists in interfering with adhesion of the pathogen to the host using multivalent glycoconjugates. We are seeking to explore arylamide foldamers as a new class of multivalent glycoconjugates. These oligomers adopt stable helical conformations in solution, whose predictability, tunability and ease of synthesis, make them suitable to allow precise control of number, nature and orientation of carbohydrate ligands. In addition, they can feature proteinogenic side chains to mimic protein surfaces. Foldamer-based multivalent glycoconjugates can therefore be promising mimics of glycoproteins that decorate host cells, to competitively interfere with adhesion processes.
OBJECTIVES
The project involves the synthesis of monomers featuring proteinogenic side chains and saccharide ligands; their incorporation into foldamer sequences; biophysical characterization of the glycoconjugate/adhesin interaction; evaluation of the inhibition of bacterial adhesion to host cells.