Complex carbohydrates: structure, function and vaccines

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Carbohydrates are a major component of bacteria, plants and mammalian cells. Our research program focuses on the fine structural characterization and functional role of such complex carbohydrates, and in the use of these organism-specific carbohydrates in drug and vaccine preparations. The majority of our attention is directed at deciphering the complex polysaccharide structures expressed by infectious bacteria by using chemical methods and analytical techniques, such as, mass-spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We are interested in pursuing the study of medically important bacteria, for example, the recently discovered Alloiococcus otitidis, which is responsible for middle-ear infections in humans. We are also engaged in studying the chemical structures and immunochemical properties of metabolites and polysaccharides from health-related plants, such as, St. John's Wort, and of mammalian cells involved in embryogenesis. It is now well accepted that polysaccharides are capable of eliciting the immune system to raise polysaccharide-specific antibodies and in enhancing the immune systems' defensive mechanism as a whole. Hence, one of our ultimate research objectives is aimed at employing these novel structurally-defined carbohydrates as protective antigens in prophylactic glycoconjugate vaccines and therapeutic drugs.