Despite the variety of administrative/service responsibilities held, I have maintained an active research program funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian National Centres of Excellence (Glycomics Network) that investigates the mechanism of action of enzymes that function on carbohydrates to identify new targets for antibacterial therapy and to functionalize carbohydrate-based nanoparticles. Such studies entail determining the structure and function relationship of the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis and degradation of peptidoglycan, in antibiotic resistance, and in glycogen hydrolysis.