Rob Field

Project Leader

Biological Chemistry

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0)1603 450720
rob.field@jic.ac.uk

Research interests

Research Theme: Chemical Glycobiology

Carbohydrate chemistry; Enzymology; Biosynthesis; Plant cell walls; Starch; Bacterial polysaccharides and lectins; Glycosylated natural products; Chemical genomics.

Current Research Profile

The Field group is diverse in its activities, which range from organic synthesis to mechanistic enzymology and chemical biology. The common theme that runs throughout is carbohydrates:

the development of novel chemical and enzymatic approaches for the preparation of sugar nucleotides, oligosaccharides and glycosylated natural products
exploration of enzymes associated with plant cell wall and starch biosynthesis and metabolism
structural and mechanistic studies on enzymes involved in lipopolysaccharide and natural product biosynthesis
carbohydrates and lectins in microbial adhesion to host cells and evasion of the immune response
carbohydrate-coated surfaces ("glycochips", gold nanoparticles and fluorescent quantum dots) for identifying and quantifying protein-carbohydrate and pathogen-carbohydrate interactions
chemical genomics tools for dissecting events in cell and developmental biology (cell migration in Xenopus laevis; starch metabolism in barley).

Postgraduate Research Opportunities

Title	Start Date	Application Date
Understanding the interface of plant-microbe interactions using mass spectrometry imaging. Industrial CASE PhD studentship in conjunction with Waters Corporation.	01-Oct-2012	30-Jun-2012

Recent Publications

Fais M., Karamanska R., Allman S., Fairhurst S. A., Innocenti P., Fairbank A. J., Donohoe T. J., Davis B. G., Russell D. A., Field R. A. (2011)
Surface plasmon resonance imaging of glycoarrays identifies novel and unnatural carbohydrate-based ligands for potential ricin sensor development
Chemical Science 2 (10) 1952-1959

Field R. A. (2011)
Glycobiology: Challenging reaction equilibria
Nature Chemical Biology 7 (10) 658-9
DOI:10.1038/nchembio.668

Field R. A., Andrade P., Campo V. L., Carvalho I., Collet B. Y. M., Crocker P. R., Fais M., Karamanska R., Mukhopadhayay B., Nepogodiev S. A., Rashid A., Rejzek M., Russell D. A., Schofield C. L., van Well R. M. (2011)
Synthetic glycans, glycoarrays, and glyconanoparticles to investigate host infection by Trypanosoma cruzi
Petite and Sweet: Glyco-Nanotechnology as a Bridge to New Medicines
American Chemical Society: Washington, DC
(9) 143-159
DOI:10.1021/bk-2011-1091

Galante E., Geraci C., Sciuto S., Campo V. L., Carvalho I., Sesti-Costa R., Guedes P. M. M., Silva J. S., Hill L., Nepogodiev S. A., Field R. A. (2011)
Glycoclusters presenting lactose on calix[4]arene cores display trypanocidal activity
Tetrahedron 67 (33) 5902-5912

Harrison J. A., Kartha K. P., Fournier E. J., Lowary T. L., Malet C., Nilsson U. J., Hindsgaul O., Schenkman S., Naismith J. H., Field R. A. (2011)
Probing the acceptor substrate binding site of Trypanosoma cruzi trans-sialidase with systematically modified substrates and glycoside libraries.
Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry 9 (5) 1653-1660
DOI:10.1039/c0ob00826e

Nepogodiev S. A., Fais M., Hughes D. L., Field R. A. (2011)
Synthesis of apiose-containing oligosaccharide fragments of the plant cell wall: fragments of rhamnogalacturonan-II side chains A and B, and apiogalacturonan
Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry 9 (19) 6670-84
DOI:10.1039/c1ob05587a

Nepogodiev S. A., Field R. A., Damager I. (2011)
Approaches to chemical synthesis of pectic oligosaccharides
Annual Plant Reviews: Plant Polysaccharides, Biosynthesis and Bioengineering
Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
Volume 41 (3) 65-89
DOI:10.1002/9781444391015.ch3

Osbourn A., Goss R. J. M., Field R. A. (2011)
The saponins – polar isoprenoids with important and diverse biological activities
Natural Product Reports 28 1261-1268

Otto D. M., Campanero-Rhodes M. A., Karamanska R., Powell A. K., Bovin N., Turnbull J. E., Field R. A., Blackburn J., Feizi T., Crocker P. R. (2011)
An expression system for screening of proteins for glycan and protein interactions.
Analytical Biochemistry 411 (2) 261-270
DOI:10.1016/j.ab.2010.12.036

Prifti E., Goetz S., Nepogodiev S. A., Field R. A. (2011)
Synthesis of fluorescently labelled rhamnosides: probes for the evaluation of rhamnogalacturonan II biosynthetic enzymes
Carbohydrate Research 346 (12) 1617-1621
DOI:10.1016/j.carres.2011.03.039

Rejzek M., Stevenson C. E., Southard A. M., Stanley D., Denyer K., Smith A. M., Naldrett M. J., Lawson D. M., Field R. A. (2011)
Chemical genetics and cereal starch metabolism: structural basis of the non-covalent and covalent inhibition of barley beta-amylase.
Molecular BioSystems 7 (3) 718-730
DOI:10.1039/C0MB00204F, Paper

Stanley D., Rejzek M., Naested H., Smedley M., Otero S., Fahy B., Thorpe F., Nash R. J., Harwood W., Svensson B., Denyer K., Field R. A., Smith A. M. (2011)
The role of {alpha}-glucosidase in germinating barley grains
Plant Physiology 155 (2) 932-943
DOI:10.1104/pp.110.168328

Syson K., Stevenson C. E. M., Rejzek M., Fairhurst S. A., Nair A., Bruton C. J., Field R. A., Chater K. F., Lawson D. M., Bornemann S. (2011)
Structure of a Streptomyces maltosyltransferase GlgE: a homologue of a genetically validated anti-tuberculosis target
Journal of Biological Chemistry 286 (44) 38298-38310
DOI:10.1074/jbc.M111.279315

Aragāo-Leoneti V., Campo V. L., Gomes A. S., Field R. A., Carvalho I. (2010)
Application of copper(I)-catalysed azide/alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) ‘click chemistry' in carbohydrate drug and neoglycopolymer synthesis
Tetrahedron 66 (49) 9475-9492

Campo V. L., Carvalho I., Da Silva C. H. T., Schenkman S., Hill L., Nepogodiev S., Field R. A. (2010)
Cyclooligomerisation of azido-alkyne-functionalised sugars: synthesis of 1,6-linked cyclic pseudo-galactooligosaccharides and assessment of their sialylation by Trypanosoma cruzi trans-sialidase
Chemical Science 1 (4) 507-514

Carvalho I., Andrade P., Campo V. L., Guedes P. M., Sesti-Costa R., Silva J. S., Schenkman S., Dedola S., Hill L., Rejzek M., Nepogodiev S. A., Field R. A. (2010)
'Click chemistry' synthesis of a library of 1,2,3-triazole-substituted galactose derivatives and their evaluation against Trypanosoma cruzi and its cell surface trans-sialidase.
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 18 (7) 2412-27
DOI:10.1016/j.bmc.2010.02.053

Dedola S., Hughes D. L., Nepogodiev S. A., Rejzek M., Field R. A. (2010)
Synthesis of alpha- and beta-D-glucopyranosyl triazoles by CuAAC 'click chemistry': reactant tolerance, reaction rate, product structure and glucosidase inhibitory properties.
Carbohydrate Research 345 (9) 1123-34
DOI:10.1016/j.carres.2010.03.041

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