Working Group Glycochemistry and Glycobiology (6414)

Glycogroup has been interested in a wide range of areas related to carbohydrate chemistry. Research is focussed on investigations into synthetic aspects such as the development of novel methodologies as well as syntheses of biologically active compounds from carbohydrates. As the main research topic, sugar analogues with nitrogen instead of oxygen in the ring as reversible glycosidase inhibitors have been extensively investigated. Current activities are concerned with structure/activity relationships of derivatives of the natural product 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-mannitol, a powerful enzyme inhibitor. Other research topics include synthetic applications of the Amadori and Heyns rearrangements, approaches to glycosides of open-chain ketoses, unusual sugar tautomers in organic synthesis and as biochemical probes, simple syntheses of intelligent products from cheap renewable sugars as well as the design and applications of fluorescently tagged glycosidase inhibitors. Recent work in the area of lactosamine and related oligosaccharide building blocks is supporting applied research at AGLYCON, a start-up company, supported by TU Graz as well as the Styrian Government.