Peter Seeberger talks to Joanne Thomson about rapid carbohydrate synthesis and the fight against malaria          

Peter Seeberger is professor of organic chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland and an affiliate professor at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, US. He works at the interface of chemistry and biology, focusing on the rapid synthesis of complex carbohydrates and their role in biological processes. Peter is also co-founder of Ancora Pharmaceuticals, which develops carbohydrate-based therapeutics.

What inspired you to become a chemist?

I wanted to do something challenging that would not only involve theory but also practice. With chemistry, you have to know something but you also have to be good with your hands and that combination seemed very attractive. 

Much of your research focuses on the synthesis of oligosaccharides. What is it in particular that fascinates you about this type of molecule?

I did my PhD in biochemistry, working on both DNA and peptides. While there were good ways to make these types of molecules, carbohydrate synthesis at that time was very complicated. Since carbohydrates form such a large class of compounds and they are biologically very relevant, it seemed to me to make sense to do synthesis and chemistry on them because it would have the biggest possible biological and medical impact. 

You embrace new technologies in your work, including automated oligosaccharide synthesis. How have these helped advance your research?

Instrumentation can only be a means to an end. For us, the ultimate role of automated synthesis is to make carbohydrate chemistry accessible for non-chemists, such as biologists and medical researchers. We want to get this tool into the hands of all people interested in natural products, in this case carbohydrates. For our laboratory, it is never the end of the research to make the instrumentation. The end should be to do better chemistry, to be quicker and more efficient and to do reactions that we couldn't do beforehand. 

What do you think are the major challenges in carbohydrate research?

I think there are still interesting challenges at very basic levels of carbohydrate chemistry involving the creation of glycosidic linkages and protecting groups. Right now, the two major challenges in my opinion are synthesising protected building blocks for automated assembly and the sequencing of complex oligosaccharides. 

You have won a number of awards throughout your career and last year you were voted amongst the top 100 Swiss. What is the secret to your success?

I think the awards are usually the result of the hard work of my co-workers. Of course, I also participate in this work but I have a very good team around me. I have been lucky over the past 10 years to have very smart, dedicated, creative young people in my group. I think it is this team effort that has made it possible for us to do research that other people have felt worthy of awards. 

You are a founding member of the Testfa-Ilf 'Hope for Africa foundation.' Could you tell me about its aims?

About five years ago, some of our research on malaria vaccines was covered on Swiss and German television. A group of people approached me and asked how they could fund our research because they thought creating such a vaccine could be interesting. In particular, an Ethiopian who had lived in Switzerland for the past twenty years and had lost her brother to malaria in Ethiopia was very keen to help.  Since vaccine research is so immensely expensive - we are talking about $800 million to develop a vaccine - it seemed more prudent to focus the limited funds of private people on immediate relief. The Testfa-Ilf foundation was created to advance healthcare in Africa, in particular Ethiopia, with a focus on malaria. Our first success has been the creation of a bed-net factory. Usually Ethiopians buy the insecticide-treated bed-nets from Asia. By a relatively modest investment, we were able to create five hundred new jobs in Ethiopia and make those bed-nets available at prices that people can afford, without them relying on donations but actually making them themselves. Malaria vaccines are important but there are many other things we can do to help and that is what we created the foundation for. 

Most people associate carbohydrates with the food we eat. What is your favourite food?

My favourite food is dessert so again sugars in this case! 

What do you do in your spare time?

I try to spend it with my wife and daughter whenever possible. That is usually the only spare time I have right now. 

If you weren't a scientist, what would you be?

I would be in business so I could manage my own company.