Modern approaches to the synthesis of diverse classes of oligosaccharides

Abstract

Through diverse oligosaccharide examples of what today constitutes a complex target, this thesis details four total synthetic oligosaccharide projects. Each project emphasizes the importance of scalable delivery of required monosaccharide building blocks, selection of most optimal synthetic routes, and rational, experience-based choice of protecting groups so that even the most fragile functionalities can be preserved. Special attention is also devoted to the so-called “hybrid” synthesis, whereby chemical and enzymatic approaches are combined together to step-economically deliver the products. Finally, it is shown which types of complex oligosaccharides have reached the state of enzyme-catalyzed assembly, and the ones that are not.