The Emil Fischer Award
The Emil Fischer Carbohydrate Award has been established in 2008 by the European Carbohydrate Organization in order to honor active carbohydrate scientists distinguished with contributions of excellence.
The 2023's Emil Fischer Award winner :
The 2023 Emil Fischer Award is conferred to Prof. Jeroen CODÉE, professor in Organic Chemistry at Leiden University, The Netherlands, in recognition of his exceptional accomplishments and dedication to bio-organic chemistry in the field of Glycosciences.
Prof. CODÉE‘s scientific interests range from fundamental organic synthesis to vaccine/drug development and the design and synthesis of glycobiology tools for the investigation of carbohydrate binding targets.
Since the beginning of his career his interest has been focused on the chemical synthesis of complex carbohydrate structures and the development of glycosylation methods, therefore. He contributed significantly in applying techniques of automated synthesis for glycosylation reactions where he achieved the development of a protocol for the automated solid-phase synthesis of oligosaccharides with 1,2-cis-glycosidic linkages, which is one of the most challenging in the context of stereoselectivity and preparatively useful yields. With his excellent knowledge of glycosylation reaction on the molecular basis he established a structure-reactivity-stereoselectivity relationship which allows for rational design of glycosylation reactions. Moreover, using high level computational chemistry, Prof. CODÉE achieved in mapping the energy landscape of the complete conformational space of oxocarbenium ions and shedding further light on the insights of the glycosylation reaction.
His fundamental studies to unravel the mechanism of glycosylation reactions led to innovative synthetic routes to assemble complex bacterial glycans. These complex carbohydrate structures and glycoconjugates are useful tools to study their interaction with the host immune system, as antigens and ligands for innate immune system cell receptors as well as to develop glycomimetic conjugates as vaccines against bacterial infections.
The 2021's Emil Fischer Award winner :
The 2021 Emil Fischer Award is conferred to Prof. Antonio MOLINARO, professor of Organic Chemistry at University of Napoli Federico II and Special Appointed Professor at School of Science of Osaka University.
The Award will be presented to Prof. MOLINARO in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments toward the structural elucidation of complex carbohydrates from microbial world, in particular, in the study of structure and role of cell wall of microorganisms in the elicitation of innate immune response in plants and mammals.
When Antonio MOLINARO started his independent career, the investigation of the structure and the mechanisms of action of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and peptidoglycan (PGN) from plant-pathogen bacteria was still at a descriptive stage and little was known about the mechanisms of perception of these molecules by plants and about the associated signal transduction pathways that trigger plant immunity. By isolating glycoconjugates from Gram-negative bacteria and determining their 3D-structures using state of art NMR and MS methodologies and molecular mechanics and dynamics approaches, Antonio MOLINARO was able to elucidate the conformational behavior of the ligand alone and when interacting with a protein, determine its bioactive conformation and elucidate its epitope mapping.
His work led to seminal contributions to the understanding of the molecular basis of elicitation of eukaryotic defenses and the effects of microbial carbohydrate signatures on the immune response of both mammals and plants. Recently, he has moved his interests toward the understanding of the role of LPS in gut microbiota as well as root microbiota symbionts
Previous Emil Fischer Award winners :
Prof Carme Rovira
University of Barcelona, Spain
In recognition of her outstanding accomplishments to unravel the mode of action of carbohydrate processing enzymes in atomic detail using ground breaking computational techniques
Prof. Carlo Unverzagt
University of Bayreuth, Germany
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in the chemical and enzymatic synthesis of N-glycans and glycoproteins.
Prof. Jean-Paul Latgé
Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in fundamental and clinical aspects of the glycobiology of the human opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.
Prof. Antoni Planas
Institut Quimic de Sarria, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments to unravel the mechanisms of glycosidases, glycosyltransferases, and other auxiliary enzymes involved in the fine decoration of oligosaccharides, polysaccharides and glycoconjugates.
Prof. David Crich
Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, USA
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in vital areas of glycochemistry
Prof. Richard R. Schmidt
University of Konstanz, Germany
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in the field of the glycosylation reaction and oligosaccharide synthesis.