Title: “Sweet Nanomaterials”
By: Prof. Mingdi Yan, Department of Chemistry, UMass Lowell
Abstract: Cell surface glycans are crucial for cell-cell communication and play key roles in bacterial and viral infections. The interactions of cell surface glycans with lectins influence immune responses, infections, and cellular signaling. Sweet nanomaterials, i.e., nanomaterials functionalized with carbohydrates, can mimic cell surfaces, enabling targeted detection, imaging, and therapy for pathogens. One of our research focuses is on developing glyconanomaterials for imaging, drug delivery, and antibacterial therapeutics. We have designed new synthetic strategies, such as photoclick reactions and catalyst-free bioorthogonal reactions, to functionalize nanomaterials with glycans. The conjugation chemistry applies to variety of nanomaterials, including metal and oxide nanoparticles, metal nanoclusters and carbon nanomaterials. We have also developed several methods to quantify ligand density and measure the binding aJinity of glyconanomaterials with lectins. Our results show that glyconanomaterials act as multivalent scaJolds, significantly enhancing glycan-lectin binding aJinity by several orders of magnitude and bacterial targeting. Using bacteria-specific carbohydrates, we achieved selective bacterial targeting with high specificity, as demonstrated using maltodextrin for E. coli and trehalose for mycobacteria. Examples will be given on using glyconanomaterials for drug delivery, imaging, and therapeutics for bacteria.
