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Group Leader
Dr. Harry Jennings
National Research Council Canada
Institute for Biological Sciences
100 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Harry.Jennings@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Telephone: 613-990-0821
Business Contact
Yves Geoffrion Ph. D.
Group Leader, Business Relations
National Research Council Canada
Institute for Biological Sciences
Yves.geoffrion@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Phone: 613-991-6377
Fax: 613-941-1327
Group Focus
The mandate of the Glycoimmunology group is to develop novel human vaccines and therapeutic agents against cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases based on the study of biological sugars. The Group's research focuses on the development of conjugate vaccines, novel inhibitors of glycosyltransferases/ glycosidases, and immunotherapies for preventataive, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications for human disease. Ongoing research spans the range from basic discovery to clinical studies.
Team members
Research Officers: Dr. Harry Jennings, Dr. Rob Pon , Dr. Wei Zou
Research Associates: Dr. Ravi Nasi, Dr. Rishi Kumar, Dr. Kannan Vembaiyan
Technical Officers: Milan Bhasin, Nancy Biggs, Margaret Hsieh, Qingling Yang, Dean Williams
Ongoing Research Activities and Projects
There are three main research themes being explored by the Glycoimmunology group: carbohydrate immunochemistry and vaccine design, carbohydrate-based inhibitor synthesis, and carbohydrate immunology. Specific projects focus on immune targeting of cancer cells via the bioengineering of their surface sialic acid; the control of cancer metastasis via the manipulation and targeting of tumor surface carbohydrate; physical and immunochemical mapping of protective sialylated epitopes; the synthesis of small molecule inhibitors of neurominidases and sialytransferases, and carbohydrate-based disease modifying approaches for Multiple Sclerosis.
Partnering Opportunities
Interest in scientific, clinical and industrial collaboratorswhose expertise/interest is in the following areas:
- Development of glycoconjugate vaccines against cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases.
- Glycotherapeutic design and application.
Expertise and available technologies
- Glycoconjugate vaccine technology
- Immunomodulation technology
- Carbohydrate synthesis
- Biochemical engineering of sialylated cancer antigens
- Human/ carbohydrate immunology
- Flow cytometric analysis
- Vaccine and cancer animal models
