Francisco Santoyo González

Principal Investigator of the Carbohydrate Research Group of the UGR (FQM-208-Junta de Andalucía), Professor Santoyo-González was born in Cabra de Santo Cristo, Jaén (Spain) in 1953. He studied at the University of Granada where he obtained the degrees of Licenciado (1975) and Doctor in Chemistry (1979) under the supervision of Professor Fidel Jorge López Aparicio. He started his teaching career in the Department of Organic Chemistry of the UGR in 1976, first as a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Education and Science (1976-1978), then as Assistant Professor (1978), Professor (1982), and Full Professor (since 2000). He has been visiting professor at the University of Ottawa (Canada) on several occasions working with Professors Hans H. Baer and René Roy.

Carbohydrate Chemistry, Glycochemistry, Bioconjugation, Supramolecular Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, “Click-chemistry”, Vinyl sufone Chemistry

The scientific interests of Professor Santoyo-Gonzalez are focused on:

I. Development and applications of novel synthetic methodologies in carbohydrate chemistry, glycochemistry and bioconjugation

• The synthesis and reactivity of:

a) Carbohydrates: doubly branched sugars, thiosugars, glycals, cyclic sulfate sugars and the use of regioselective protecting groups

b) Cyclodextrins and their derivatives

c) Neoglycoconjugates: glycodendrimers, glycocyclodextrins, glycocalixarenes

• Click-chemistry reactions:

a) Cu(I) catalyzed cycloaddition of alkyne and azides, through the development of novel heterogeneous and non-heterogeneous magnetic and non-magnetic catalysts

b) Michael reaction of vinyl sulfones and their applications

c) Click coupling-and-decoupling methodologies based in vinyl sulfonates

• Click-based techniques for bioconjugation, labeling and immobilization of biomolecules

• Synthesis of novel Organic-Inorganic hybrid materials and carbohydrate-based polymeric matrices

• Synthesys of non-viral gene vectors for transfection and drug targeted delivery systems

• Synthesys of nanoparticle-based systems:

a) Au-based Nanoparticles and their applications as catalyst

b) Carbon Nanodots (CNDots) and their applications as nano-platfomrs

• Synthesis of supramolecular systems: Cyclodextrins, Calixarenes, Rotaxanes

II. Biological activity and technological applications of synthetic compounds and materials

• Biological activity of neoglycoconjugates
• Gene-transfection
• Drug-delivery