Seminar

"Sugars in Molecular Recognition Events"

Ana Ardá, PhD

Carbohydrates (glycans, saccharides) are important biomolecules that are involved in diverse biological phenomena. Of remarkable interest are their roles in host-pathogen interactions, the regulation of immune responses, or the development of certain pathologies, such as cancer and autoimmune diseases, where glycans serve as molecular recognition points for interactions with lectins and antibodies. In the Chemical Glycobiology group, we are focused in understanding these molecular recognition events from a structural perspective, with the aim of providing key information for biomedical applications. Our main experimental technique is Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, in combination with other biophysical techniques and chemical and molecular biology tools. In this talk, I will present some of our recent results, which include the elucidation of key immunological bacterial epitopes for vaccine design, galectin-glycan binding features, and SARS-COVID RBD glycosylation and lectin recognition.