Recombinant Elastin-like Polypeptides as Precision Polymer Scaffolds towards Synthetic Glycoconjugates – ELP

There are relevant opportunities to develop innovative synthetic strategies at the frontier between biotechnology and traditional organic chemistry to produce polymers fulfilling requirements of sustainability and precision, towards the development of functional, high value-added, polymer materials such as those used in the biomedical field.
The present research project proposes the use of protein-engineering techniques to access functional precision polymer scaffolds with exquisite control over monomer sequence and length, namely with an exact “primary structure”. Orthogonal bioconjugation strategies will then be applied to chemoselectively modify specific residues of the recombinant polypeptides so as to introduce biologically relevant motifs, as a means to access well-defined and high molecular weight multivalent bioconjugates.
As a proof of concept, the project will be applied to the synthesis of chemical tools for glycobiology, where there is a critical need for the rational design of glycoprotein mimics for drug-targeting and vaccination strategies. Recombinant elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) scaffolds will therefore be glycosylated with specific carbohydrates and different grafting densities to address major questions in multivalent glyconjugates’ design.