Stéphane Vincent

Glycoscience and new drug design

Mechanistic and inhibition studies of essential enzymes involved in bacterial cell wall biosynthesis and colonization processes

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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:

1. Tuberculosis: Inhibition and mechanistic studies of the biosynthesis of galactofuranose, with the goal to develop new therapeutic strategies against tuberculosis
2. Glycoclusters: Glycofullerenes as inhibitors of bacterial glycosyltransferases and as anti-adhesion molecules
3. Antivirulence: Synthesis of inhibitors of the LPS (lypoPolySaccharide) biosynthetic pathway
4. Biosensors for bacterial detection

Group members

Postdoctoral researchers: Dr. Guillaume Brulay, Dr. José Ignacio Bucheli Veytia, Dr. Jun Cao, Dr. Vivian Lioret and Dr. Dmytro Strilets

PhD students: Rayane Choker, Jenny Ha, Juliette Liégeois, Jozie Tientcheu and Rym Yahia Boudhar

Research projects

• ^ONGOING Synthesis of new diagnostic tools for the rapid detection of antimicrobial resistance. Ongoing PhD thesis by Jozie Tientcheu.

• ^ONGOING Synthesis of anti-SARS-CoV2 glycomimetics. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Jun Cao.

• ^ONGOING Synthesis of Dynamic Materials designed as antibacterial and antibiofilm agents. Ongoing PhD thesis by Rayane Choker.

• ^ONGOING Development of synthetic methodologies for the preparation of 18F-radiolabeled molecules as PET-SCAN radiotracers. Ongoing PhD thesis by Juliette Liégeois. 

• ^ONGOING Synthesis and antibacterial properties of glycomimetics designed as inhibitors of bacterial Kdo processing enzymes. Ongoing PhD thesis by Rym Yahia Boudhar.

• ^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. José Ignacio Bucheli Veytia. Under co-supervision by Prof. Stéphane Vincent, UNamur (promoter) and Prof. Charles Gauthier and Prof. Eric Déziel, Université du Québec, Canada (co-promoters).

• Clickable mannose analogues: powerful tool to label bacterial cell wall by Metabolic Glycoengineering and Synthesize sugar nucleotide for antibodies functionalization. PhD thesis defended by Marine Lacritick on 25/11/2024.

• Multivalent 9-O-Acetylated-sialic acid glycoclusters as potent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Emilie Lesur (2024).

• Development of methodology to synthesized fluorinated sugar derivate. Postdoctoral research by Dr. Kévin Renault (2021-2023).

• Synthesis of beta-lactams for the electrochemical detection of bacterial antibioresistance. PhD thesis defended by Arnaud Beaufays on 25/10/2023.

• 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.

• Synthesis of Heptose mimetics as inhibitors of bacterial enzymes or modulators of inflammation. PhD thesis defended by Jun Cao on 20/10/2022.

• 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.

• Synthesis of unprecedented electron-deficient exo-glycals targeting the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall. 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

ALL PUBLICATIONS IN PUBMED

Lacritick M, Reboul A, Yahia Boudhar R, Carlier E, Fairman JW, Scaillet T, Subramanian S, Wouters J, Staker B, De Bolle X, Vincent SP. Site-Specific Incorporation of Clickable d-Mannose Derivatives in the Lipopolysaccharide Core of the Pathogen Brucella abortus. ACS Chem Biol. 2025 Jun 20;20(6):1382-1393.

Fu J, Wang Q, Fu H, Wang D, Mayard A, Pan W, Vincent SP. Design, synthesis, and discovery of cinnamoyl amide derivatives as potent NagZ inhibitors with antibacterial activity. Eur J Med Chem. 2025 Jul 5:291:117622.

Lamara KO, Noël N, Massicot F, Vasse JL, Vincent SP, Behr JB. A Bis-Glycosylamine Strategy for the Synthesis of Dimeric Iminosugars Based on a DAB-1 Scaffold. Molecules. 2025 Jan 8;30(2):226.

Vucko T, Strilets D, Soumillion P, Desguin B, Vincent SP. Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of NPN cofactor taking advantage of ADP-ribosyl cyclase and LarC cyclometallase promiscuous activities. Bioorg Chem. 2024 Dec:153:107879.

Cao J, Veytia-Bucheli JI, Liang L, Wouters J, Silva-Rosero I, Bussmann J, Gauthier C, De Bolle X, Groleau MC, Déziel E, Vincent SP. Exploring fluorinated heptose phosphate analogues as inhibitors of HldA and HldE, key enzymes in the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide. Bioorg Chem. 2024 Dec;153:107767.

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.

Contact

stephane.vincent@unamur.be