Carbohydrates belong to the most complex molecules of life. Monosaccharides as the smallest sub-unit of them, exhibit many variations in their stereochemistry and in possibilities to perform intra and inter molecular reactions. Nature not only uses these compound class as construction material or as enery source, sugars are predestined for information storage and processing. Hence, mono- and oligo saccharides are found at key positions everywhere in the living matter. Cell surface carbohydrates play a central role in many normal and pathological recognition processes. Furthermore, glycoconjugates are responsible for intercellular communication and cell growth.

Their importance can be compared to those of amino acids. But their chemistry can not. The sheer number of stereogenic centres in sugars and the similarity of its functional groups make its defined transformations a challenging endeavour for chemists. A challenge always bears a chance and in this case it opens a promising research field for a chemical company dedicated / devoted to the synthesis of sophisticated natural-like research reagents.

Despite tremedous efforts worldwide, progress in sugar chemistry has been much slower than desired and predicted some years ago. The success story of automated, solid phase peptide synthesis protocols resulting in polymers of defined monomer sequenz and geometry, could not be transferred/repeated to/for oligosaccharides by now.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt about it:

Glycoconjugates are the matter for life sciences in the next decade. With progress in biotechnology on the one hand and with the advent of new chemical technologies, reactions and reagents on the other hand, the formation and the transformation of clearly defined glycoconjgates is becoming more and more feasible.

And our contribution?

ChiroBlock has been engaged in research on and the synthesis of unnatural monosaccharides for about six years. Due to their pharmacological importance we first focussed on fluorinated glycosyl donors. Any glycosyl donor should allow for a stereochemically defined coupling to other molecules, such as peptides or other sugar moieties. The introduction of fluorine, the orthogonal protection of the sugar backbone and finally the attachment of an appropriate leaving group, facilitating such a defined coupling, constitute demanding tasks for synthetic chemists.

Together with the input from external scientists whom we co-laborate with – much expertise, not only with fluorinated monosaccharides, has been gained in this field during the last years.

As a customer of ChiroBlock you benefit from this know how, regardless of wheter you are looking for glycosyl donors or related (chiral) compounds.

The first sugar products have been made available. Depending on the amount you need, you can buy them either directly from ChiroBlock or via our distributing partners. Please feel free to ask for availabilities, sources and prices.

While the market for individual glycosyl donors (still) is small, the demand for custom tailored polyalkohols and its derivatives is growing fast. We are confident that our strategy to use the results of our in-house research on glycosyl donors and to pursue a multy technology approach for the molecules required by our customers is the right way to participate in and benefit from this growing market.