STTR Phase I: Development of Bacterial Glycorandomization Hosts

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research Phase I project develops methodology needed for the production of sugar enhanced (glycosidic) compound libraries and final therapeutic leads. Sugar attachments have been identified as a powerful way to make therapeutically relevant small molecules. Examples of drugs with sugar attachments such as erythromycin and doxorubicin show how sugars can change inactive molecules into antibacterial or anticancer drugs. Finding the correct genetically altered cell-based systems needed for efficient high yield production of small molecule sugar enhanced compounds is the first phase at exploiting sugar enhanced drug discovery beyond what Nature has provided. The broader impacts of this research are found in the enormous potential that sugar enhancement provides to therapeutics. Sugars are critical molecules that regulate a vast array of biological processes and pathways in the human body and play fundamental roles in diseases as well as in drug action. This project will greatly expand the ease and reduce the cost of making, screening and commercially scaling sugar-enhanced small molecule therapeutics.