Modular Automation and Chemical Methods for S- and O-linked Plant and Microbial Carbohydrate Synthesis

有了这个奖项，化学系的化学合成计划支持布卢明顿的印第安纳州大学化学系的尼古拉·波尔教授的研究。Pohl教授正在开发自动化工具来构建带有S键的碳水化合物，S键是一种稳定生物系统中碳水化合物聚合物的功能。被称为寡糖的碳水化合物链存在于每一种生物体中从植物到人类再到微生物病毒的表面也是如此。这些生物体还含有糖苷酶，可以切割碳水化合物键的生物催化剂。研究连接糖的生物活性和设计糖苷酶抑制剂需要更稳定的寡糖。Pohl教授和她的学生正在开发新的自动化工具，以创建与植物和微生物相关的寡糖，这些寡糖包括特定的功能，使它们能够用于研究组装和拆卸这些链的蛋白质。这项研究正在影响植物研究，并为农业和制药行业提供基础性的理解。除了培训她的研究小组的学生在信息技术（IT）的开发和使用启用自动化，波尔教授还建立了一个新的本科实验室课程，旨在让本科生接触合成自动化和碳水化合物合成。 目前迫切需要开发用于合成定义的寡糖的自动化方法，以支持对这些化合物在生物系统中的活性的研究。Pohl教授和她的研究团队正在开发第一个适合自动液体处理的S-连接糖的糖基化反应。Pohl团队正在寻求S-连接糖的自动化合成，因为它们具有更高的代谢稳定性，这是促进其在生物系统中研究的关键特征。目前正在批量和连续流条件下开发S-连接糖的自动化合成方法。与此同时，Pohl教授和她的学生正在开发低成本的灵活自动化系统，以允许在多步合成中将O-和S-键有效地位点选择性地掺入植物和微生物寡糖中。这些研究活动是培养本科生和研究生水平的学生在合成有机化学和信息技术（IT）支持的自动化的接口工作。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

With this award, the Chemical Synthesis Program of the Division of Chemistry is supporting the research of Professor Nicola Pohl of the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University in Bloomington. Professor Pohl is developing automated tools to construct carbohydrates bearing S-linkages a feature that stabilizes the carbohydrate polymers in biological systems. Carbohydrate chains known as oligosaccharides are found in every organism—from plants to humans to microbes—as well as on the surfaces of viruses. These organisms also contain glycosidases, biological catalysts that can cleave carbohydrate linkages. More stable oligosaccharides are needed to study the biological activity of linked sugars and to design glycosidase inhibitors. Professor Pohl and her students are developing new automated tools to create oligosaccharides associated with plants and microbes that include specific features that will allow them to be used to study proteins that assemble and dismantle these chains. This research is impacting plant studies, as well as providing foundational understanding for the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. In addition to training the students in her research group in the development and use of information technology (IT)-enabled automation, Professor Pohl is also building a new undergraduate laboratory curriculum that aims to expose undergraduate students to synthetic automation and carbohydrate synthesis. There is a critical need for the development of automated methods for the synthesis of defined oligosaccharides to support studies on the activities of these compounds in biological systems. Professor Pohl and her research team are developing the first glycosylation reactions for S-linked sugars that are amenable to automated liquid-handling. The Pohl group is pursuing the automated synthesis of S-linked sugars due to their greater metabolic stability, a key feature that facilitates their study in biological systems. Automated synthetic methods for S-linked sugars are being developed under batch and continuous flow conditions. Simultaneously, Professor Pohl and her students are developing low-cost flexible automated systems to allow the efficient site-selective incorporation of both O- and S-linkages into plant and microbial oligosaccharides in multi-step syntheses. These research activities are training students at the undergraduate and graduate levels to work at the interface of synthetic organic chemistry and information technology (IT)-enabled automation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.