Dr. Zachary Armstrong is an assistant professor at the University of Leiden in the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and he is a member of the Biosynthetic Chemistry division. He completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia in 2009. This was followed by an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship supported PhD, co-supervised by Professor Stephen Withers (https://withers.chem.ubc.ca/) and Professor Steven Hallam (https://hallam.microbiology.ubc.ca/) at the University of British Columbia. His PhD work focused on the identification of new glycoside hydrolases from metagenomes and the design of new biocatalysts for glycan synthesis. After receiving his PhD in 2018 he crossed the Atlantic to pursue a Post-Doctoral position at the University of York (York, UK) under the guidance of Professor Gideon Davies (website). While in York he focused on the structural and mechanistic investigation of biotechnology and disease relevant glycosidases with covalent probes and inhibitors.

Dr. Armstrong’s research spans the disciplines of Chemistry and Biology with particular focus on carbohydrate modifications and how they relate to both disease states and host-pathogen interactions. His research group focuses on developing and applying new tools for profiling carbohydrate modifying enzymes and exploiting these tools to develop new therapeutics.

Awards

• Veni Research Fellow (2022-2025)

• NSERC-Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (2013-2016)

• UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (2013-2016)

• Faculty of Science Graduate Award (2013-2014)

• College for Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Award (2010-2013)

• NSERC-CREATE Fellowship (2010-2013)

• Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation Excellence Award (2005)