Accessibility statement

Prof Martin Fascione

Professor in Chemistry

Tel: 01904 328822
Email: martin.fascione@york.ac.uk

Carbohydrate chemistry; Chemical glycobiology and glycomedicine

  • Synthetic carbohydrate chemistry
  • Chemical glycobiology 
  • Chemical enzymology of carbohydrate active enzymes
  • Protein bioconjugation for the development of (glyco)theranostics

Sugars (or carbohydrates as they are also known) are integral in a number of important biological processes including tumour metastasis, bacterial recognition, and the immunological response.

The Fascione group studies complex sugars (glycans) at the interface between chemistry and biology- a field commonly termed ‘chemical glycobiology’. Our focus is on deciphering the roles that these biomolecules play in the etiology of disease, with the overall aim of developing chemical tools to study and perturb their activity in vivo. We use synthetic and enzymatic carbohydrate chemistry to develop chemical glycobiology tools, to particularly study sialic acid like sugars that play important roles in bacterial pathogens. We also develop novel (glyco)conjugation approaches for proteins which can be applied in chemical glycomedicine approaches for the prevention and treatment of disease.

To achieve these goals, we utilise a toolkit of techniques consisting of synthetic carbohydrate and protein chemistry, organocatalysis, enzymology and molecular biology. 

Selected publications

Nabarro, J., Hatton, N. E., Kowalski, B., Spicer, C. D., Pushkin, D. O., Fascione, M. A. & Baumann, C. G. Lipopolysaccharide insertion and vesicle mediated turnover drive growth independent outer membrane adaptation in Escherichia coli​. Nat. Commun., 2026, 17, 9983

Schwabe, B. T., Angstman, I. M., Palop, G., Vollheyde, K., Ingold, Z., Li, J., Stankevich, K. S., Spicer, C. D., Fascione, M. A., Grogan, G., Geu-Flores, F. & Lichman, B. R. Nicotine biosynthesis completed by cryptic activating glucosylation. Nat. Commun., 2026, 17, article number: 4221

Jeffries, J., Walklett, A. J., Hatton, N. E., Kowalski, B., Keenan, T., Munjoma, L., Haigh, R., Bayliss, C. D., Thomas, G. H.  & Fascione, M. A. Rational engineering of a pseudaminic acid synthase enzyme enables access to a 3-fluoro sugar with motility inhibition in bacterial pathogens. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2025, 64 (50), e202515851

Hollingsworth, K., Di Maio, A., Richards, S. J., Vendeville, J-B., Wheatley, D. E., Council, C. E., Keenan, T., Ledru, H., Chidwick, H., Huang, K., Parmeggiani, F., Marchesi, A., Chai, W., McBerney, R., Kaminski, T. P., Balmforth, M. R., Tamasanu, A., Charnock, S., Warriner, S. L., Webb, M. E., Fascione, M. A., Flitsch, S., Galan, M. C., Feizi, T., Gibson, M. I, Liu, Y., Turnbull, W. B. & Linclau, B. Synthesis and screening of a library of Lewis deoxyfluoro-analogues reveals differential recognition by glycan-binding partners. Nat. Commun., 2024, 15, article number: 7925

Walklett, A., Flack, E., Chidwick, H., Hatton, N., Keenan, T., Budhadev, D., Walton, J., Thomas, G. H., & Fascione, M. A. The Retaining Pse5Ac7Ac Pseudaminyltransferase KpsS1 Defines a Previously Unreported Glycosyltransferase Family (GT118). Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2024, 63 (15), e202318523

Biography

Martin received his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. W. Bruce Turnbull on the stereoselective synthesis of 1,2-cis-glycosides. Following a postdoctoral period in Leeds, he was then awarded a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship to study the mechanisms of carbohydrate processing enzymes with Prof. Steve Withers, FRS, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada (2012-2013) and Prof. Gideon Davies, FRS, FMedSci, at the University of York, UK (2013-2014). In August 2014 he took up a lectureship in the York Structural Biology Laboratory, within the Department of Chemistry in York. His research interests include the chemical glycobiology of nonulosonic/sialic acids, synthetic and enzymatic carbohydrate chemistry, and the bioconjugation of proteins.

In 2022 he was awarded a five-year ERC Consolidator Grant (selected by the ERC, funded by UKRI), and the Royal Society of Chemistry's 'Dextra' Carbohydrate Award in 2025.