NAmur Research Institute for LIfe Sciences
Stéphane Vincent
Glycoscience and new drug design
Mechanistic and inhibition studies of essential enzymes involved in bacterial cell wall biosynthesis and colonization processes
Prof. Stéphane Vincent PhD
UNamur, Department of chemistry, Unit of organic chemistry (UCO), Laboratory of bio-organic chemistry (CBO)
Member of Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences (NARILIS) & Namur Institute of Structured Matter (NISM)
Member of the Namur Research Pole in Infectiology (NaRePI)
Research portal UNamur | ORCID | LinkedIn
Expertise and research interests
Prof. Stéphane Vincent leads a research group in bio-organic chemistry, with a special emphasis in glycoscience, biocatalysis and mechanistic enzymology. His team conducts mechanistic and inhibition studies of essential enzymes involved in the bacterial cell wall biosynthesis and the colonization processes by important human pathogens. The lab is specialized in the multi-step synthesis of complex glycoconjugates: nucleotide-sugars, glycofullerenes, glycolipids and functionalized carbohydrates. They develop their own inhibition assays.
Stéphane Vincent’s research activities focus on four main topics:
- Tuberculosis: Inhibition and mechanistic studies of the biosynthesis of galactofuranose, with the goal to develop new therapeutic strategies against tuberculosis
- Glycoclusters: Glycofullerenes as inhibitors of bacterial glycosyltransferases and as anti-adhesion molecules
- Antivirulence: Synthesis of inhibitors of the LPS (lypoPolySaccharide) biosynthetic pathway
- Biosensors for bacterial detection
Group members
Postdoctoral researchers: Dr. Guillaume Brulay, Dr. Ignacio Bucheli, Dr. Emilie Lesur, Dr. Vivian Lioret and Dr. Dmytro Strilets
PhD students: Jenny Ha and Marine Lacritick
Research projects
- ONGOING Multivalent 9-O-Acetylated-sialic acid glycoclusters as potent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Emilie Lesur.
- ONGOING Synthesis of azido-sugars nucleotides in order to functionalize antibodies by enzymatic reactions. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Guillaume Brulay.
- ONGOING Synthesis of glycoclusters with antivirals properties. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Vivian Lioret.
- ONGOING Development of novel dynamic frameworks targeting multidrug-resistant pathogens. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Dmytro Strilets (C2W fellowship).
- ONGOING Synthesis of borylated glycomimetics. Ongoing PhD thesis by Jenny Ha.
- ONGOING Synthetic inhibitors targeting polysaccharides biosynthesis as potential alternatives to antibiotherapy. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Ignacio Bucheli. Under co-supervision by Prof. Stéphane Vincent, UNamur (promoter) and Prof. Charles Gauthier and Prof. Eric Déziel, Université du Québec, Canada (co-promoters).
- ONGOING Synthesis of new molecular probes to identify and label bacteria such as Brucella. Ongoing PhD thesis by Marine Lacritick. In collaboration with Prof. Xavier De Bolle.
- Development of methodology to synthesized fluorinated sugar derivate. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Kévin Renault (2021-2023).
- Synthesis of a novel Nickel pincer nucleotide and its biosynthetic precursors. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Timothé Vucko (Sept 2020 - Sept 2022) and previously Dr. Elsa Tufenkjian (Apr 2019 - Jun 2020). Under co-supervision by Prof. Stéphane Vincent, UNamur (promoter) and Prof. Patrice Soumillon, UCLouvain (co-promoter).
- Development of new materials with antibacterial, atibiofilm and drug delivery properties. Research by Andrei Diaconu.
- Synthesis of fluorinated molecules for PET-Scan imaging. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Maha Rzeigui.
- Development of carbohydrate analogues as mechanistic probe for the characterization of galactofuranoside hydrolase. PhD thesis defended by by Loïc Chêne on 25/01/2023.
- Site-selective functionalisation of antibody Glycans for biomedical applications. PhD thesis defended by Léa Chartier on 01/07/2022.
- Synthesis and biological evaluations of novel pillar[5]arene conjugates. PhD thesis defended by Wenzhang Chen on 27/10/2021.
- Glycofullerenes as intra and extracellular enzymes inhibitors. Postdoctoral research by Ravikumar Jimmidi (2016-2020).
- Synthesis of Novel Heterovalent Scaffolds as Antibiofilm Agents. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Tharwat Mohy El Dine (2017-2019).
- FRISBY: Fast and Reliable ultra-sensitive Identification of Streptococcus B at deliverY. Project funded by Biowin. Consortium involving Coris BioConcept, UNamur (Prof. Stéphane Vincent) and ULiège (Prof. Gauthier Eppe).
- Synthesis and characterization of novel glycogold nanoparticles as antibiofilm and antibacterial agents. PhD thesis defended by Tao Wang on 28/10/2020.
- Synthesis of Heptose Mono- and Bisphosphate Analogues as Modulators of the Bacterial Innate Immunity and Inhibitors of the Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide. PhD thesis defended by Lina Liang on 24/10/2019.
- . PhD thesis defended by Christophe Frédéric on 19/12/2018.
- Debenzylative cyclisation: Development of a new strategy for the synthesis of complex tetrahydrofuran and highly valuable fluorinated analogues Renewal. PhD thesis defended by Julien Delbrouck on 20/11/2018.
- Synthetic derivatives of natural polyphenols targeting the mycobacterial cell wall. PhD thesis defended by Sydney Villaume on 15/10/2018.
- Discovery of novel inhibitors targeting the mycobacterial cell wall. PhD thesis defended by Jian Fu on 06/10/2017.
- Discovery of inhibitors of the bacterial lipopolysaccharide as anti-virulence agents. PhD thesis defended by Huixiao Fu on 05/10/2017.
Selected publications
Wang T, Jimmidi R, Roubinet B, Landemarre L, Vincent SP. Glycofullerene-AuNPs as multivalent ligands of DC-SIGN and bacterial lectin FimH: tuning nanoparticle size and ligand density. Nanoscale. 2023 Jun 28.
Fu J, He Z, Fu H, Xia Y, N'Go I, Lou H, Wu J, Pan W, Vincent SP. Synthesis and evaluation of inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis UGM using bioisosteric replacement. Bioorg Med Chem. 2022 Jun 23;69:116896.
Cao J, Vincent SP. Synthesis of Spirocyclic Cyclopropyl Glycosyl-1-phosphate Analogues. Org Lett. 2022 Jun 17;24(23):4165-4169.
Petitjean SJL, Chen W, Koehler M, Jimmidi R, Yang J, Mohammed D, Juniku B, Stanifer ML, Boulant S, Vincent SP, Alsteens D. Multivalent 9-O-Acetylated-sialic acid glycoclusters as potent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nat Commun. 2022 May 10;13(1):2564.
Mohy El Dine T, Jimmidi R, Diaconu A, Fransolet M, Michiels C, De Winter J, Gillon E, Imberty A, Coenye T, Vincent SP. Pillar[5]arene-Based Polycationic Glyco[2]rotaxanes Designed as Pseudomonas aeruginosa Antibiofilm Agents. J Med Chem. 2021 Sep 20.
Diaconu A, Coenye T, Barboiu M, Vincent SP. Dynamic Constitutional Frameworks as antibacterial and antibiofilm agents. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Aug 4.
Fu J, Fu H, Xia Y, N'Go I, Cao J, Pan W, Vincent SP. Identification of inhibitors of UDP-galactopyranose mutase via combinatorial in situ screening. Org Biomol Chem. 2021 Feb 10.
Chen W, Mohy Ei Dine T, Vincent SP. Synthesis of functionalized copillar[4+1]arenes and rotaxane as heteromultivalent scaffolds. Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Dec 16.
Liang L, Wade Wei TY, Wu PY, Herrebout W, Tsai MD, Vincent SP. Nonhydrolyzable Heptose Bis- and Monophosphate Analogues Modulate Pro-inflammatory TIFA-NF-κB Signaling. Chembiochem. 2020 Oct 15;21(20):2982-2990.
Delbrouck JA, Bochatay VN, Tikad A, Vincent SP. Regioselective Synthesis of Difluorinated C-Furanosides Involving a Debenzylative Cycloetherification. Org Lett. 2019 Jul 19;21(14):5562-5566.
Frédéric CJ, Cornil J, Vandamme M, Dumitrescu L, Tikad A, Robiette R, Vincent SP. Highly ( Z)-Diastereoselective Synthesis of Trifluoromethylated exo-Glycals via Photoredox and Copper Catalysis. Org Lett. 2018 Nov 2;20(21):6769-6773.
Fu J, Fu H, Dieu M, Halloum I, Kremer L, Xia Y, Pan W, Vincent SP. Identification of inhibitors targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall biosynthesis via dynamic combinatorial chemistry. Chem Commun (Camb). 2017 Sep 26;53(77):10632-10635.
Liang L, Vincent SP. Synthesis of D-glycero-D-manno-heptose 1,7-bisphosphate (HBP) featuring a β-stereoselective bis-phosphorylation. 2017 Tetrahedron Letters. 58, 37, p. 3631-3633.
Villaume SA, Fu J, N'Go I, Liang H, Lou H, Kremer L, Pan W, Vincent SP. Natural and Synthetic Flavonoids as Potent Mycobacterium tuberculosis UGM Inhibitors. Chemistry. 2017 Aug 1;23(43):10423-10429.
Frédéric CJ, Tikad A, Fu J, Pan W, Zheng RB, Koizumi A, Xue X, Lowary TL, Vincent SP. Synthesis of Unprecedented Sulfonylated Phosphono-exo-Glycals Designed as Inhibitors of the Three Mycobacterial Galactofuranose Processing Enzymes. Chemistry. 2016 Oct 24;22(44):15913-15920.
