Grant: Canada Research Chairs

All cells are covered in a “sugar coating” that is composed of complex carbohydrates called glycans. Glycans are involved in every aspect of biology and medicine. However, we have a limited understanding on their specific structures and functions, hindering essential knowledge on the critical roles glycans play in Human health and disease. A main challenge in studying glycans is that there is a lack of convenient chemical and biochemical tools and methods to efficiently prepare relevant complex glycan structures, and to investigate their specific interactions with proteins in cells. The goal of Dr. Capicciotti’s research program is to address these limitations by developing novel chemical biology strategies to study glycans by bridging interdisciplinary techniques in chemistry, biochemistry, and cell biology. Towards this goal, her research aims to: 1) improve chemical and enzymatic synthesis methods to prepare complex glycans structures that are more streamlined and efficient, to allow for the study of the interactions of glycans with proteins; 2) develop innovative chemical biology tools to study glycan-protein interactions in cells to understand their biological functions and their role in disease; and 3) design new sugar- and glycoprotein-based drug molecules for more effective therapeutics to treat cancer. Dr. Capicciotti’s unique interdisciplinary research program will contribute new in-depth insights into understanding the biological roles of glycans and how their interactions with glycan-binding proteins contributes to health and disease, such as cell signaling pathways and how cancer uses sugars to “hide” from the immune system. Her research will also help drive the advancement of glycan-based strategies for treating disease, including the development of novel cancer therapeutics and the identification of previously unknown targets to treat cancer and other diseases. Given that glycans are involved in every aspect of human life, Dr. Capicciotti’s research will provide a deeper understanding of these important biomolecules, which is essential to answer fundamental questions in cellular biology and develop more effective medicines to treat disease.