Chemistry and Biochemistry Seminar Series: Dr. Marina Tanasova, Michigan Tech

TITLE: “Exploring substrate selection of sugar transporters towards transporter-specific bioanalytical and biomedical tools”

ABSTRACT:Facilitative glucose transporters (GLUTs) play central roles in cellular carbohydrate uptake and are increasingly recognized as important molecular targets in cancer and other metabolic diseases. Because individual GLUT isoforms exhibit distinct substrate preferences and expression patterns, selective targeting of disease-relevant transporters offers an opportunity to develop new tools for studying cellular metabolism, imaging diseased tissues, and delivering therapeutic agents. However, the development of GLUT-selective probes is challenging because structural similarities among transporter isoforms and the stringent requirements governing substrate recognition and translocation can limit both affinity and transport.

This seminar will describe our development of small-molecule probes designed to exploit the substrate-recognition properties of GLUTs. Early studies established carbohydrate-based fluorescent probes capable of reporting GLUT-mediated uptake and demonstrated the potential of 2,5-anhydro-D-mannitol-derived scaffolds for preferential targeting of the fructose transporter GLUT5. Building on these findings, structure–activity relationship studies have explored how carbohydrate structure and fluorophore properties influence transporter recognition and cellular uptake. More recent efforts have expanded this strategy toward GLUT5-targeted glycoconjugates suitable for imaging applications, including designs incorporating late-stage click functionalization for eventual radiolabeling. Parallel work has addressed discrimination between GLUT5 and GLUT2, as well as the development of turn-on fluorescent probes that enable real-time monitoring of transporter activity in living cells and organisms. Together, these studies illustrate a chemical-biology approach in which systematic probe design is used not only to visualize carbohydrate transport but also to interrogate the molecular determinants of GLUT substrate selectivity.

BIO:Marina Tanasova, Ph.D., is a Professor of Chemistry and Graduate Program Director at Michigan Technological University (MTU). She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Michigan State University in 2009, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). She joined Michigan Tech in 2013 and has since established an interdisciplinary research program at the interface of organic synthesis, chemical biology, and biomedical research. Dr. Tanasova's research focuses on the design and synthesis of molecular probes and bioactive compounds for understanding carbohydrate transport in health and disease.