Carbohydrates play key roles in many biological processes, including common and rare diseases such as diabetes, cancer, DCMs (disorders of carbohydrate metabolism), and CDGs (congenital disorders of glycosylation). Many biological processes, such as protein folding, cell signaling, fertilization, embryogenesis, immune response, cell cryobiology, and cell proliferation are mediated by carbohydrates. Although the field of glycoscience has burgeoned over the last several decades, the limited availability of affordable and accessible tools and technologies hinders research on elucidating and manipulating the functions of carbohydrates in many metabolic and disease processes.
Dr. Zhang's research focuses on: (1) chemical and chemoenzymatic synthesis of N-glycans, O-glycans, and other natural carbohydrate products such as sugar phosphates and ribonucleosides, (2) use of stable isotopically labeled compounds to examine structure, conformation, and reactivity of carbohydrates in solution using modern multidimensional NMR methods and computational techniques (DFT and MD), (3) carbohydrate degradation and reaction mechanism studies by NMR and mass spectrometry using stable isotopically labeled compounds, and (4) simplifying current synthetic methods and developing new, cost-effective routes to prepare core labeled carbohydrates to render stable isotopically labeled carbohydrates more accessible and affordable to investigators.
