The sweet side of drug discovery: How sugars can help shape the future of medicines – Yuzhong Liu, PhD
February 11, 2026
Some of the most powerful medicines we use today come from natural products, which are specialized molecules that plants and microbes have evolved over millions of years. Sugars play a key role in these compounds—determining how the molecule behaves, where it travels in the body and how strongly it activates the immune system. In this free Front Row lecture, Scripps Research chemist Yuzhong Liu demonstrated how her lab uses synthetic biology to decode the role of sugars in medicine—helping scientists build next-generation vaccine adjuvants, cancer therapies and safer treatments.