Molekulares Design
Our Collaboration Partners
1. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Sevilla, Spain.
2. Universita Degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy.
3. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-IBS), Paris, France.
4. Max Planck Institut (MPI), Berlin, Germany.
5. Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain.
6. Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
7. The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
8. Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic
9. Vrije Universiteit Medical Center (VUMC), Amsterdam, Netherlands.
10. DC4U, Bussum, Netherlands.
11. Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, Grenoble, France.
Abstract
This multidisciplinary project intends to approach the design and synthesis of carbohydrate multivalent systems to be used as tools to study the interaction between carbohydrates and DC-SIGN (Dendritic Cell-Specific ICAM-3 Grabbing Non-integrin), a C-type lectin implicated in the recognition of pathogens and in some of the earliest stages of the infection process. Targeting pathogens at the earliest stages of infection, before cell penetration, is of crucial importance because it can result in a significant decrease of pathogen titre in the organism and therefore will facilitate the efficiency of current therapies for diseases caused by HIV and HCV.
Grant
Financed by the European Commission as part of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities under the funding scheme of „Marie Curie Initial Training Networks“.
In this European Research Network new drug molecules will be investigated derived from polyfunctionalized carbohydrates. New classes of compounds will by synthesized, characterized and screened for pharmaceutical activity in a set of known receptors.
Partners:
• Professor Anna Bernardi (University of Milan, Italy)
• Professor Francesco Nicotra (University of Milan II, Italy)
• Professor George Fleet (University of Oxford, UK)
• Professor Pierre Sinay (ENS Paris, France)
• Professor Jesus Jimenez-Barbero (University of Madrid, Spain)
• Dr. Battistini (Nerviano Medical Sciences, Milan, Italy)
Support given by:
European Commission, Fifth Framework Programme „Improving the Human Research Potential and Socio-Economic Knowledge Base“
A new approach using chiral host compounds is used to physically discriminate between the two enantiomers of a racemate. In close collaboration with synthetic, supramolecular and combinatorial chemists, a path for the rational design of new host compounds will be suggested on the basis of molecular modelling (Monte-Carlo and molecular dynamis simulations), virtual screening and ligand binding free energies and quantum chemical calculations.
Partners:
• Professor Jeremy D. Kilburn (University of Southampton, UK)
• Professor Antony P. Davis (University of Bristol, UK)
• Professor Johannes de Vries (DSM, Geleen, The Netherlands)
• Professor Javier de Mendoza (Universidad de Autonoma de Madrid, Spain)
• Professor Christian Roussel (Université Marseilles, France)
• Professor Cesare Gennari (Universita' di Milano, Italy)
Support given by:
European Commission, Fifth Framework Programme „Improving the Human Research Potential and Socio-Economic Knowledge Base“