Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of O-acetylated silica acids gives new insight in virus-host interactions

On April 13, 2022, Zeshi (Jack) Li has received a doctorate with the distinction Cum Laude for chemo-enzymatic synthesis of O-acetylated sialosides and their unnatural analogs to probe virus-glycan interactions. The performed research is of very high caliber and has resulted in first author publications in Nature Chemistry, the Journal of the American Chemical Society and ACS Infection Diseases. See for a recent UU research news item.

Jack first training was at Peking University in China after which he joined the research group of prof. Geert-Jan Boons at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He followed prof. Boons to Utrecht and finished his PhD at the Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery Group of the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences.