Accelerated Solid Phase Glycan Synthesis: ASGS.

Solid phase synthesis is the most dominant approach for the preparation of biological oligomers as it enables the introduction of monomers iteratively. Accelerated solid phase synthesis of biological oligomers is crucial for chemical biology, but its application to the synthesis of oligosaccharides is not trivial. Solid-phase oligosaccharide assembly is a slow process performed in a variety of conditions and temperatures, requires an inert gas atmosphere, and demands high excess of glycosyl donors.

Translating solution to solid phase glycosylation conditions.

Optimization of glycosylation conditions for automated glycan assembly is highly challenging, demands wasteful use of precious building blocks, and relies on nontrivial analyses. We developed a semi-quantitative method for automated optimization of glycosylation temperature that utilized minute quantities of donors and translated those conditions to solid-phase glycan assembly.

The breaking beads approach for photocleavage from solid support.

Photocleavage from polystyrene beads is a pivotal reaction for solid phase synthesis that relies on photolabile linkers. Photocleavage from intact porous polystyrene beads is not optimal because light cannot penetrate into the beads and the surface area exposed to irradiation is limited. Thus, hazardous, technically challenging and expensive setups are used for photocleavage from intact beads.