Engineering of glycan-binding proteins for mapping cancer glycomics

Over the last decade, chemical biology approaches have proven increasingly successful, delivering new solutions to problems that were previously unresponsive to traditional chemical and biochemical techniques. In the fields of proteomics and genomics, new diagnostics and therapeutic strategies are revolutionizing healthcare. However, in the field of glycomics, tractable strategies to study glycan (carbohydrate)-mediated processes remain scarce. In addition, current approaches cannot capture the glycoconjugate ligands of glycan-binding proteins (lectin) in physiologically relevant environments, like living cells. Current methods like glycan chips often overlook the multivalent complexity of glycoproteins on living cells and ignore the protein part of glycoconjugates. Thus, the physiological ligands of most lectins remain unknown. Using protein engineering and synthetic biology, the primary aim for this project is to generate tools that will enable us and others to capture transient glycan-protein interactions in an efficient way. Ultimately these tools will be used to characterize altered glycan recognition in disease models and clinical samples.

Faculty Supervisor:

Samy Cecioni

Student:

Partner:

Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey Campus)

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Biotechnology; Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Technology

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: