Todd L. Lowary received his B.A. in chemistry from the University of Montana and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Alberta. Postdoctoral appointments were at the University of Alberta and the Carlsberg Laboratory. In 1996, he started a position in the Department of Chemistry at The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor and in 2002 was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. He returned to the University of Alberta in 2003, retiring in 2021 as the R. U. Lemieux Professor of Carbohydrate Chemistry. In 2019 he became a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, a position he continues to hold. Since 2019 he has served as the Director of the Institute. Research interests are in carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry, in particular as these fields relate to microbial glycans. Areas of particular focus are glycans from mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, gram-negative bacteria lipopolysaccharide biosynthetic probes, vaccine antigens from Streptococcus suis, N-glycans from chlorella viruses and mycobacteriophage–glycan interactions. He is Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Canada.
The lab consists of a group of 15-20 undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and technicians focused on understanding the role of carbohydrates in biology. The lab has been successful working in three different countries (see details below).
October 1996–September 2002, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University
October 2002–June 2003, Associate Professor with tenure, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University
July 2003–June 2006, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta
July 2006– June 2021, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta
October 2014–June 2019, Canada Research Chair in Carbohydrate Chemistry (Tier 1)
September 2015–June 2021, R. U. Lemieux Chair in Carbohydrate Chemistry
July 2019–Present, Distinguished Research Fellow, Academia Sinica
July 2021–Present Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta
We are well equipment for research in synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology (protein cloning, expression and purification.)
I am an international leader in the synthesis of molecules to probe the biological roles of carbohydrates (glycans). My underlying research philosophy is to work on problems in which preparing novel, structurally-interesting glycans leads to unprecedented tools for studying important biological problems. We have a particular interest in microbial glycans The group has >250 person years of experience in the synthesis of complex glycans and their use in related downstream biochemical/immunological investigations, done either by my group or in collaboration. One area of focus for the entirety of my career has been glycans produced by mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), a disease of continued global concern. Over the past 3–4 years we have developed a program on identifying novel mycobacteriophages and characterizing their receptor ligands, which, at the time we started, were poorly defined. This ‘phage program’ now constitutes a significant part of my research group’s effort and was made possible only by resources we developed through years of chemical synthesis of mycobacterial glycans. My research program over the past several years has focused in three major areas, which are outlined in more detail below: 1) Mycobacterial glycans and mycobacteriophages; 2) Glycans from Gram-negative bacteria; and 3) Hyperbranched glycans.
2023 Peter Gallagher Memorial Fellowship, Institute of Glycomics, Griffith University, Australia
2020 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
2020 Arthur C. Cope Scholar (Late Career) Award of the American Chemical Society
2019 Alfred Bader Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry
2017 University Cup (University of Alberta)
2016 J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research (University of Alberta)
2015 ASTech Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science Award
2014 Instructor Appreciation Night Award from the Interdepartmental Science Students Society (teaching award)
2013 Melville L. Wolfrom Award, Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society
2012 University of Alberta Killam Annual Professorship
2012 Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
2012 Bernard Belleau Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry
2011 Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorship
2011 Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering (with D. R. Bundle, G. A. Armstrong, J. S. Klassen and K. K. S. Ng)
2011 Elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society
2011 Faculty of Science Award for Excellent Teaching
2010 Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2008 Richard E. Juday Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Montana
2007 Co-Chair of Carbohydrates Gordon Conference
2007 Carbohydrate Research Award for Creativity in Carbohydrate Chemistry
2006 E. W. R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship
2006 Fellowship for Foreign Distinguished Scholars, National Science Council, Taiwan
2006 Chemistry Students Association Teaching Excellence Award
2005 Horace S. Isbell Award, Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society
1999 Ohio State University Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching
1999 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
1988 B.A. Chemistry, with highest honors, University of Montana
1993 Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, University of Alberta
1993–1995 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta with Dr. David R. Bundle
1995–1996 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Carlsberg Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark with Dr. Morten P. Meldal (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022)