Jennifer Kohler, Ph.D.

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Biography

Jennifer Kohler completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Bryn Mawr College.  Her Ph.D. studies, focused on the kinetics of protein-DNA interactions, were conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Alanna Schepartz, in the Chemistry Department at Yale University.  From 2000-2004, Jennifer was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi at the University of California, Berkeley.  Research in the Kohler lab focuses on understanding the roles of glycoconjugates in a variety of biological systems.

Research summary

In 2012, the National Academy of Sciences published an expert report titled “Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future.” The central theme of this report is that “[a] new focus on glycoscience, a field that explores the structures and functions of sugars, promises great advances in areas as diverse as medicine, energy generation, and materials science…[h]owever, glycans have received little attention from the research community due to a lack of tools to probe their often complex structures and properties.” My research group at UT Southwestern develops new chemical biology methods that address challenges identified in this report. We developed photocrosslinking sugar analogs of both sialic acid and GlcNAc that can be metabolically incorporated into cellular glycoconjugates and used to identify transient glycan-mediated interactions. Using the photocrosslinking sialic acid analog, we discovered novel and functionally significant fucosylated binding partners for cholera toxin and validated the role of non-ganglioside host receptors for cholera toxin in vivo. Using the photocrosslinking GlcNAc analog, we obtained evidence that the O-GlcNAc is intimately associated with nucleoporin-karyopherin recognition events that occur during nuclear transport. We share our photocrosslinking reagents with research groups worldwide who are interesting in biological phenomena where glycosylation plays a critical role. We have also interfaced chemoselective glycan modification reactions with proteomics methods to develop a method to discover the glycoprotein substrates of sialidases. Our ongoing research program employs these and other glycobiology tools to understand the roles of glycosylation in intestinal epithelial tissue.

Graduate School

Yale University , Chemistry

Graduate School

Bryn Mawr College (1994), Chemistry

• carbohydrates
• chemical biology
• glycobiology
• Golgi
• membrane proteins

Featured Publications

Interleukin-22 regulates B3GNT7 expression to induce fucosylation of glycoproteins in intestinal epithelial cells.

Carroll DJ, Burns MWN, Mottram L, Propheter DC, Boucher A, Lessen GM, Kumar A, Malaker SA, Xing C, Hooper LV, Yrlid U, Kohler JJ, J Biol Chem 2021 Dec 101463

A photo-cross-linking GlcNAc analog enables covalent capture of N-linked glycoprotein-binding partners on the cell surface.

Wu H, Shajahan A, Yang JY, Capota E, Wands AM, Arthur CM, Stowell SR, Moremen KW, Azadi P, Kohler JJ, Cell Chem Biol 2021 Jul

Fucosylation and protein glycosylation create functional receptors for cholera toxin.

Wands AM, Fujita A, McCombs JE, Cervin J, Dedic B, Rodriguez AC, Nischan N, Bond MR, Mettlen M, Trudgian DC, Lemoff A, Quiding-Järbrink M, Gustavsson B, Steentoft C, Clausen H, Mirzaei H, Teneberg S, Yrlid U, Kohler JJ Elife 2015 Oct 4

Photoactivatable crosslinking sugars for capturing glycoprotein interactions.

Tanaka Y, Kohler JJ J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008 Mar 130 11 3278-9

The 2022 Nobel prize in chemistry - sweet!

Boyce M, Malaker SA, Riley NM, Kohler JJ, Glycobiology 2023 Mar

Engineering Glyco-Enzymes for Substrate Identification and Targeting

MWN Burns and JJ Kohler Israel Journal of Chemistry 2023

Exo-Enzymatic Addition of Diazirine-Modified Sialic Acid to Cell Surfaces Enables Photocrosslinking of Glycoproteins.

Yarravarapu N, Konada RSR, Darabedian N, Pedowitz NJ, Krishnamurthy SN, Pratt MR, Kohler JJ, Bioconjug Chem 2022 Apr

4-Deoxy-4-fluoro-GalNAz (4FGalNAz) Is a Metabolic Chemical Reporter of O-GlcNAc Modifications, Highlighting the Notable Substrate Flexibility of O-GlcNAc Transferase.

Jackson EG, Cutolo G, Yang B, Yarravarapu N, Burns MWN, Bineva-Todd G, Roustan C, Thoden JB, Lin-Jones HM, van Kuppevelt TH, Holden HM, Schumann B, Kohler JJ, Woo CM, Pratt MR, ACS Chem Biol 2021 Dec

Synthesis of Cell-Permeable N-Acetylhexosamine 1-Phosphates.

Kakde BN, Capota E, Kohler JJ, Tambar UK, J Org Chem 2021 Oct

What sugar does to your pores.

Kohler JJ, J Cell Biol 2021 Jul 220 7

 Featured Books

Chapter 37: Microbial Lectins: Hemagglutinins, Adhesins, and Toxins. In Essentials of Glycobiology [Internet]. 4th edition.

Amanda L. Lewis, Jennifer J. Kohler, Markus Aebi Ajit Varki 1, Richard D. Cummings 2, Jeffrey D. Esko 3, Pamela Stanley 4, Gerald W. Hart 5, Markus Aebi 6, Debra Mohnen 7, Taroh Kinoshita 8, Nicolle H. Packer 9, James H. Prestegard 10, Ronald L. Schnaar 11, Peter H. Seeberger 12 , editors. (2022). Cold Spring Harbor, NY, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Mass Spectrometry of Glycoproteins: Methods and Protocols

Jennifer J. Kohler & Steven M. Patrie (Ed.) (2012). Humana Press

• Research Fellowship
  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2009)
• Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award
  March of Dimes (2007)
• CAREER Award
  National Science Foundation (2007)
• New Faculty Award
  Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (2005)

• Society for Glycobiology (2007)
• American Chemical Society (1995)