Orthogonal ligation strategies for making well defined glycoconjugate vaccines

Background: Glycoconjugate vaccines for infectious diseases represent a strong emerging market, as evidenced by the recent GSK acquisition of Glycovaxyn and Novartis Vaccines. The use of bacterial capsular polysaccharides as vaccine components has general applicability as prophylactic treatments to protect human and animal health. However, glycans generally make poor immunogens and glycoproteins/glycoconjugates are difficult to manufacture in the homogenous form necessary to pass regulatory scrutiny. In this project we will develop new chemical and enzymatic approaches for the preparation of glycoconjugate vaccines in which multiple different polysaccharide epitopes are attached to specific sites on protein carriers.