Conference by Prof Joanne Xie

 Prof. Joanne XIE, Ecole Normale Supérieure  de Paris Saclay

Photochromic molecules are photoactive molecules featuring different structural and/or electronic
properties which may be reversibly isomerized by light, with the possibility to cycle up to one million “round
trips”. Light illumination can be easily and precisely controlled in time, location, wavelength and intensity, thus
enabling the precise activation and deactivation of chemical and biological function, and offering numerous
opportunities for reversibly photomodulating chemical, biological or pharmacological proprieties.
Photoswitchable compounds have found wide applications in material sciences, in catalysis, in supramolecular
chemistry, in biology and photopharmacology, and so on.
Spatiotemporally controlling the structure and functions of carbohydrates by light would be particularly
interesting since carbohydrates, which are optical transparent, play key roles in various biological and
physiological process. However, introducing a photochromic unit onto the carbohydrates represents a relatively
underexplored approach to developing new chemical tools for different applications of carbohydrates and
glycoconjugates.
Since last ten years, we are interested in the development of photoswitchable glycosides and glycomacrocyclic
compounds for applications in optical materials and photopharmacology. Synthesis of different generations of
photoswitchable glycomacrocycles and their use as chiral dopants for liquid crystals, synthesis of water-soluble
glycosyl azobenzenes and their use as photoswitchable glycosidase inhibitors, lectin ligands or for the self-
assembly with nucleic acids will be presented.