Breaking the Wall of Sugar Synthesis for Sustainability

Breaking the Wall of Sugar Synthesis for Sustainability

Global Call 2026 Finalist Interview: Physical Sciences

Ming Joo Koh received his Ph.D. degree from Boston College, USA in 2017 and continued his studies as a post-doctoral fellow. He joined the Department of Chemistry at the National University of Singapore in 2018 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2026. Koh’s research focuses on developing sustainable and practical solutions that address critical challenges in chemical and carbohydrate synthesis through base metal catalysis, radical cross-coupling chemistry and molecular editing.

Which wall does your research or project break?  

Unprotected carbohydrates play critical roles in chemistry, biology and medicine. Developing methods to make them is therefore important. However, traditional ways of making carbohydrates are unsustainable as they require laborious protecting group strategies involving multiple steps, harsh conditions and excessive waste. To solve this, my project harnesses photochemical radical glycosylation that obviates protecting group strategies, providing significant savings in cost, resources and time. 

What is the main goal of your research or project?  

Native sugar substrates contain many hydroxyl groups that are nearly indistinguishable, forcing chemists to rely on multi-step protecting group strategies to carry out site- and stereoselective glycosylation at the anomeric position to access products. The complexity of protection, deprotection, functionalization and purification steps creates a huge bottleneck in the synthesis of glycosides. 

My project develops a simple yet powerful "cap-and-glycosylate" strategy that directly transforms native sugars into the desired glycosides in one process, bypassing unnecessary hydroxyl group masking and manipulation steps. This is achieved by selecting an appropriate reagent that selectively caps and activates the anomeric hydroxyl group, forming a transient thioglycosyl intermediate. This species is directly subjected to photochemical glycosylation to generate controllable glycosyl radicals, which can react with a variety of reagents to make different classes of glycosides and glycoproteins. The main goal of this project is to significantly simplify the way chemists make carbohydrates and glycoconjugates for important applications in chemistry, biology and medicine.

What impact does your research or project have on society?

Carbohydrates (glycosides) are widely distributed across the three domains of cellular life forms and play pivotal parts in many biological processes. Reliable access to carbohydrates via chemical synthesis is crucial for understanding their properties, functions and potential disease-related roles, so as to facilitate the discovery of new medicines to treat diseases. I expect my work to significantly accelerate carbohydrate synthesis for drug discovery to create new therapeutics for our society.

What advice would you give to young scientists or students interested in pursuing a career in research, or to your younger self starting in science?

Be focused and passionate about what you want to achieve and persevere. Be resourceful and willing to learn, and accept failures along the journey because they will eventually lead you to success. Be a team player because teamwork and collaboration can broaden your knowledge and perspective to overcome obstacles.

What inspired you to be in the profession you are today?  

As an undergraduate student, I was fortunate to be mentored by various professors, which inspired me to pursue a career in academia. I love discovering new chemistry that makes an impact on society through my independent research. At the same time, I also enjoy interacting with students and guiding them towards their desired career pathways.