Science2Go | Building materials with sugars | Dr. Martina Delbianco (Group leader at the Institute)

Natural biopolymers have inspired the development of synthetic analogues capable of adopting defined conformations and forming programmable three-dimensional architectures. These “human-made” structures are mainly based on amino acids and nucleotides, the units that make up proteins and DNA and RNA. Carbohydrates, the most abundant organic materials on Earth, have an enormous potential for the generation of similar programmable architectures. Nevertheless, the complexity of carbohydrate synthesis and structural analysis have prevented access to synthetic carbohydrates capable of adopting defined geometries.

In the Carbohydrate Materials group, we prepare well-defined carbohydrates to understand how the primary sequence affects the carbohydrate shape. With multiple analytical techniques, we study the conformation of single carbohydrate chains and explore how several carbohydrate molecules aggregate to form a material. Building on this fundamental knowledge, we aim to develop programmable carbohydrate foldamers and architectures with potentials applications in catalysis, nanotechnology, and materials science.