Research
Carbohydrates constitute the most abundant class of natural products. In addition to being a source of energy, numerous oligo- and poly- saccharides have functional roles in various biological events such as cell-cell interactions, immune reactions, and molecular signaling.
Specific Carbohydrate Antigens are expressed in at the surface of tumor cells, non-host cells (i.e. red blood cells in transfusions) or bacteria and can be involved in antigen specific immune responses. Such immune reactions are mostly resulting in the production of antibodies that bind specifically to a three-dimensional Carbohydrate Epitope displayed within the antigen by a di- or tri- saccharide fragment of the antigen. In that context, I am interested in the identification of such Epitopes displayed at the surface of tumor cells (TACEs) or bacteria and their use as immunotherapeutics in the fight against cancer or bacterial infection.
Such research interests involve the development of a variety of expertise.
Synthetic Oligosaccharides for Immunochemical and Biochemical Studies
Synthetic Oligosaccharide - Stick Model
Synthetic Oligosaccharide - Space Filling Model
Areas of Expertise
Main Focus
* Synthetic Carbohydrate Chemistry
- Synthesis of oligosaccharides, oligosaccharide fragments and analogues
- Synthesis of neoglycoproteins, glycopeptides, glycolipids
- Enzymatic synthesis
OTHER INTERESTS
* NMR and Cheminformatics
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of molecules in solution: structural analysis through various 1D and 2D experiments
- Molecular modeling, molecular dynamic simulations
* Immunochemistry
Available Equipment
Equipment in Auzanneau's group (CFI, OIT, NSERC funded)
- HPLCs (3): Large-scale Prep, Prep/semiprep, Analytical
- Chromatotron, immersion chiller and all modern equipment for organic synthesis
- Workstations: Dell/Vectra Workstations, Octane 2 (SGI)
- Molecular Modeling Software: Tripos package, MOE2002
- Fluorescence and UV/VIS plate readers