We are a synthetic bioorganic/materials group focused on applying the tools of synthetic organic chemistry to the challenges of biology, medicine and materials science.Our chemistry involves developing new unnatural amino acids and carbohydrates and making more stable artificial oligosaccharides and peptides for immunological and anti-cancer applications, and using these biomaterials as the basis for new classes of sustainable materials for a variety of applications including smart drug-delivery, environmentally benign plastics, and for use as nano probes for medical diagnostics. Our team includes synthetic chemists, computational chemists, analytical chemists, supramolecular and nanoscale chemists and engineers, biologists, biochemists and materials scientists! We have broad interests in science.
Areas of Research Interest
Peptide and Amino Acid Chemistry
We are using the tools of synthetic and computational chemistry and molecular biology to make new “custom” amino acids for various challenges in immunology and medicine.
Carbohydrate Chemistry
We are very interested in making artificial carbohydrates, “acetal-free” carbohydrates that are far more stable in biological conditions than the natural sugars.
Materials Chemistry
We are interested in making new materials based on the biomolecules for a variety of environmental, medical and consumer applications.
We are using synthetic organic chemistry in combination with computational techniques to design and make interesting new carbohydrates, peptides and polymers for biological, supramolecular, immunological, material and medical applications. We are particularly interested in projects that involve a multidisciplinary strategy at the interface of chemistry, materials science and biology.
Academic and Industrial Collaboration
We are always interested in applying our expertise in bioorganic chemistry to other challenges. Interested academic and industrial partners are encouraged to contact Dr. Trant to explore possible areas of mutual interest and benefit. For Canadian industrial partners, further financial support may be obtained through a joint proposal to MITACS or NSERC Alliance
We like modelling things. If we can understand the underlying physical forces between molecules, we can design next generation batteries, catalysts, and reactions! Plus, fundamental physical chemistry is fun. And we learn a lot about more complicated systems that we can apply to our other work by doing this!
We are working on making the “universal” drug delivery particle. Something that is stable until it is triggered, something that only goes to specific cell types, something that leaves no trace once it has delivered its cargo. This would lead to being able to delvier very small amounts of chemotherapeutics only to cancer cells, avoiding the side effects. Sounds like Sci-Fi? It’s just chemistry!
Almost everything we do is organic synthesis! We make new molecules, and most of our focus is in “medicinal chemistry” the science of designing, preparing and testing drugs (we like doing all three). This involves computer design working with teams at the chemistry bench, and teams working in our bio lab. It’s really the core of what we are all about! Our first syntheses are still coming, but for some of John’s previous work:
Designing Peptide Drugs to Treat Autoimmune Diseases
What if we could stop the underlying mechanism that causes autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis, Diabetes, or Celiac disease? That’d be cool. And useful. By designing artificial amino acids tailor made to fit pockets on specific proteins, we can move towards this goal. Combining peptide engineering, protein expression, and complex computational medicinal chemistry/structural biology, we are well on our way to testing our hypothesis!
We have fallen in love with cavitands, ring-shaped molecules with a hole in the middle. The things we can do with these toys is almost endless! This pic is from our study where we designed them to bind pyrophosphate in water with ridiculous affinity. We are now using them to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria! And we are working on using them to make minimum enzymes…As I said. Rings ARE FUN!
