Project description
Blending superacid chemistry and glycoscience to accelerate drug discovery
Carbohydrates are complex macromolecules involved in many biological processes that require a vast array of carbohydrate-active enzymes for their synthesis and degradation. However, lack of high-selectivity inhibitors that modulate their activity hinders the discovery of new potent and safe therapeutic agents. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the GLYCOMIMIC project will use superacid chemistry to gain further insight into the transition states of carbohydrate-active enzymes and assist the design of potent inhibitors of these enzymes.
Objective
Glycosciences study the structural and functional roles of carbohydrates in biology and have an increasing impact on many areas of our economy (health, food, natural resources). Carbohydrate Active enZymes (CAZymes), which catalyse the assembly (Glycosyl transferases, GTs) and breakdown (Glycosidases, GHs) of glycosidic linkage in carbohydrates, are essential to life, being involved in key cell functions. Their pharmacological modulation by means of selective CAZymes’ inhibitors can have multiple applications (e.g. antiviral TamifluTM, antidiabetic GlysetTM, molecular chaperone GalafoldTM). However, the design of inhibitors endowed of high selectivity is challenging, representing the major obstacle in discovering new potent and safe therapeutic agents targeting CAZymes. In this context, GLYCOMIMIC offers an innovative approach based on superacid chemistry to gain insights into CAZymes’ transition states (TS) and to help the design of specific inhibitors, paving the way for short-term impact on drug discovery! Superacid chemistry is only mastered by very few research groups in the world and is a European specificity of the Institute of Chemistry of Poitiers (IC2MP - UMR CNRS 7285 – France) and will be applied for the first time to glycosciences. With Univ. Barcelona (world leader in computer simulation of biological processes at atomic-electronic detail) acting as secondment, GLYCOMIMIC blends multidisciplinary states of the art research training in carbohydrate chemistry, superacids, low-temperature NMR analysis, DFT calculations, QM/MM dynamic simulation of enzymes and enzyme inhibition studies. It will provide a prolific fellow with an internationally competitive training, with the aim of advancing the career of an autonomous scientist in the EU and the next generation of multidisciplinary researchers in (bio)pharmaceutical sciences.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculescarbohydrates
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
- natural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsmathematical model
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
75794 Paris
France