Morimoto Lab at Notre Dame

A key area of investigation involves glycans—sugars that cover the surface of every cell and play a critical role in immune responses by interacting with lectins (glycan-binding proteins). Our group aims to characterize these interactions to develop glycan-based small molecules, immunotherapies, and diagnostics.

Another area of focus involves using chemically induced proximity to restore the activity of dysfunctional tumor-associated immune cells. We design and synthesize small molecules and biologics that can precisely modulate protein-protein interactions (PPIs) within the tumor microenvironment with minimal systemic toxicity.