Research Cluster of Bio-Polymer

Synthesis of Biopolymers based on Exact Polymerization Method and Evaluation of

Dynamic Behaviors of the Higher Order Structures

 

Yasuhito KOYAMA

Kenji MONDE (Hokkaido Univ.), Takeshi SERIZAWA (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Atsushi FUKUOKA (CRC, Hokkaido Univ.)

Our research is directed toward the synthesis of biopolymers based on exact polymerization method and evaluation of dynamic behaviors of the higher order structures. Although versatile biopolymers and their structure analogs are considered as the research objects, polysaccharides will be mainly investigated.

Cell surface in a living body includes glycoconjugates combined with proteins or lipids. The plural glycoconjugates form a domain structure to recognize specific molecules. It is known that such associations of molecules with the domain participate in various physiological functions involving infections and diseases. Therefore, the evaluation of dynamic behaviors and molecular recognition mechanisms of carbohydrates have been urged to date. However, these investigations have not been sufficiently performed yet, because the quantitative supply of carbohydrates with well-defined repeating structures for the study is extremely difficult. On the other hand, there are few reports concerning both the synthesis of domain structure rationally sophisticated by carbohydrates and a creation of innovative materials exploiting the dynamic behaviors of such domain.

This research is firstly focused on the investigations of specific field made by a single polysaccharide chain. We will synthesize structure-definite polysaccharides via exact polymerization method and elucidate the dynamic behaviors from a viewpoint of supramolecular chemistry. Building on such results, we will create versatile supramolecular materials exploiting unique characteristics of polysaccharide-specific fields such as multi-points recognition, chiral inner cavity, and stimuli-responsiveness.