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Dr. Marc Gingras

Interdisciplinary Center on Nanoscience of Marseille (CINaM),
CNRS UPR n掳 3118, and Aix-Marseille University, France

A growing interest in carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology appeared in the last years, because of some major discoveries involving carbohydrates and their roles played in fundamental biochemical processes (cancer, inflammation, AIDS, cell-cell adhesion, etc.). In view of those findings, carbohydrate-lectin recognition represents an important field of study. For better understanding those interactions, selective inhibitions and a control of lectin assemblies are often necessary. As a consequence, some multivalent glycosylated asterisk ligands (dendrimers) having a dual function, as biological probes and as inhibitors, were developped. We synthesized a novel class of colored, luminescent, UV- and electrochemically responsive glycosylated asterisks to investigate the so-called 鈥渃arbohydrate cluster effects鈥� (or multivalency effects). They are effective inhibitors against several lectins, near the nanomolar scale. Several biophysical techniques were used to characterize those interactions and assemblies over time: surface plasmon resonance (SPR), turbidimetry, dynamic light scatering (DLS), ITC, crystallization, etc.. The lectin models were from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA-1-L), Burkholderia cenocepacia (BcLA) or Con A. Novel biosensors or a higher class of fluorophores will be sought, as well as a new mode of biofilms inhibition (especially for PA colonies and the associated lungs infection in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis).