The study of bacterial adhesion is crucial to our understanding of infection processes as well as for the development of antiadhesives. Here we have investigated new nanodiamond glycoconjugates intended to inhibit adhesion of type 1 fimbriated E. coli bacteria. For conjugation of saccharides and nanodiamond, thiourea‐bridging was employed, a method that has not been used before in nanodiamond derivatization. Amino‐prefunctionalized diamond nanoparticles were prepared employing aromatic diazonium salts and reacted with different isothiocyanato‐functionalized mannose derivatives. The resulting glyconanodiamonds were characterized and then tested in bacterial binding assays. They are recognized by the bacterial protein FimH according to the structure‐activity relationships known for this lectin. Thus, owing to the particular properties of nanodiamond, a valuable material is introduced with the potential to control bacterial adhesion and colonization in a favorable way.

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The cover picture shows glyconanodiamond where the sugars are immobilized onto the diamond by thiourea bridging. This novel ligation technique for the functionalization of nanodiamond enables the grafting of different types of saccharide motifs. These glycoconjugates can be used to probe the carbohydrate‐specific interaction of bacteria and furthermore to inhibit biofilm formation. The article also reports on the quantification of bacterial adhesion to different glyconanodiamond conjugates by employing a tailor‐made sandwich assay. Details are discussed in the article by T. K. Lindhorst, A. Krueger et al. on .