Grant: Engage Grants Program

Carbohydrates play very important roles in biological systems as energy storage, structural scaffolds, and more importantly mediators for a wide range of communications between chemical entities and whole cells. Given the biological importance of carbohydrates, it is crucial to be able to elucidate the interplays between carbohydrates and their interacting partners. In this regard, fluorescent labelling of carbohydrates can provide insight into these interactions. Due to various reasons, particularly the structural complexity of carbohydrates and lack of systematic approaches towards carbohydrate labelling, fluorescent labelling, as compared to protein and nucleic acids labelling, has not been extensively explored. This proposal focuses on the development of chemistry that can be readily applied for carbohydrate labelling by fluorescent dyes, particularly the BODIPY fluorophores. It is anticipated that the fluorescently labelled carbohydrates will aid the scientific investigation of researchers working in the area of glycosciences.