Anthony Serianni, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was recently appointed to a five-year term on the U.S. Advisory Committee for International Carbohydrate Symposia by the CARB Division Executive Committee, a subgroup within the American Chemical Society. Serianni, an elected fellow of the American Chemical Society, will begin his term in early 2015.
Joining the Notre Dame faculty in 1982, Serianni’s research interests focus on biomolecular structure and NMR spectroscopy. In particular, Serianni’s laboratories develop new methods to synthesize stable isotopically-labeled biomolecules, mainly with 13C, 2H and/or 15N, and use these novel materials to study the structures, conformations and reactivities of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-containing biomolecules in solution. This research uses a multifaceted approach involving chemical and chemo-enzymic synthesis, NMR spectroscopy, x-ray crystallography and computational methods
Serianni’s research is internationally recognized for developing new analytical methods to assign the three-dimensional shapes and molecular motions (dynamics) of carbohydrate-containing biomolecules in solution and sheds new light on the fundamental factors controlling molecular recognition and catalysis in biological systems.
The CARB Division, or Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry, will host the next International Carbohydrate Symposium in July 2016, a biennial meeting that brings together scientists from across the globe whose research falls within the fields of carbohydrate chemistry, carbohydrate biochemistry, and glycobiology. One of Serianni’s responsibilities in his new post will be to assist the CARB Executive Committee in fundraising for this meeting, which will be held in New Orleans.
Originally published by at science.nd.edu on October 13, 2014.