Synthetic carbohydrates for the detection and prevention of infectious disease

In an AMR era, rapid diagnostics and alternatives to antibiotics to treat infectious diseases are urgently needed. Pathogenic microorganisms present a myriad of species-specific carbohydrate structures on their cell surfaces, which provide novel opportunities for detection and eradication. This project will explore the development of chemical and structural methods to produce and characterise cell surfaces carbohydrates found bacteria that are associated with diseases of farmed animals and that are also of concern from a bioterrorism perspective. The carbohydrates concerned will be further developed as probes to understand the biosynthesis of cell surface carbohydrates and as the basis of new diagnostics and vaccines.