Bioconjugates: Synthesis and application

Bioconjugates are playing important role in various fields of biomolecular sciences including analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, pharmacology, cancer therapy to mention a few. The lecture will focus on protein bioconjugates with covalent linkage between the two partners. First, relevant features (functional groups, charge and conformational properties etc.) of proteins, glycoproteins will be described. Various synthesis strategies (solid phase chemistry, conjugation with zero, homo- or heterobifunctional reagents, recombinant techniques) will be outlined for the attachment of drugs, epitopes, reporter (fluorophores, radioligand, spin labels, gold particles) molecules to synthetic peptides, polymers as well as to proteins. Special emphasis will be put on the introduction and discussion of various analytical tools, methods and approaches suitable for purification and for the determination of chemical composition of target conjugates. Examples from nature produced bioconjugates as well as de novo designed constructs based on enzymes, antibodies will be presented to provide a variety of applications. These includes antitumour/antimicrobila drug – conjugates as well as synthetic antigen constructs to be used for mechanistic studies and also for therapies.