Research Interests
The research in the Wu Lab integrates synthetic chemistry with glycobiology to explore the glycosylation of human pathogens and its relevance to the host immune response. Evidence from numerous studies indicates that cell surface and secreted glycoconjugates play key roles in many infectious diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis, two of the most prevalent tropical diseases in the world. Our goal is to develop chemical tools to study the biosynthetic machinery that produces the antigenic glycoconjugates and to elucidate the roles of glycans in pathogenesis.
Areas of current focus include:
- New chemical tools for glycobiology
- Fucosylation of Schistosoma mansoni
In the technology development arena, our efforts are directed at developing new bioorthogonal reactions that can be utilized to probe protein glycosylation in living systems. We are also interested in discovering specific inhibitors of glycan biosynthesis and processing. In the host-parasite interaction arena, we are investigating fucose metabolic pathways that allow schistosomes to persist in the human host.
Projects in our research group are highly multidisciplinary. Students joining our lab will gain expertise in biochemistry, organic synthesis, molecular and cell biology as well as proteomics.