Award details

Exploitation of Glycoarrays - Translation to end use

Reference	BBS/E/J/000CA370
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Rob Field
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	85,658
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2009
End date	01/05/2011
Duration	28 months

Abstract

Carbohydrates are a large group of compounds consisting of sugars with diverse structures present both inside and on the surface of cells. They fulfil many different roles but it is the way they interact with proteins that determines their effectiveness in a variety of biological events. Each cell contains a wide variety of carbohydrates and the number of possible combinations and interactions with proteins and with other carbohydrates is enormous. For example, it is now known that one of the factors influencing whether or not the influenza virus invades humans or birds is due to a very small difference in the structure of one of the sugar molecules on the surface of epithelial cells in the lungs and respiratory tract. Cancer is associated with changes of the sugar molecules attached to some proteins on the cell surface; tracking such changes may therefore be useful for diagnosing cancer and to provide a solution for specifically targeting drugs at cancerous cells. During the past four years, a consortium of scientists from the UK has developed technology to measure the interactions between carbohydrates and proteins that happen in cells, tissues or organisms (a field called 'glycomics'). This technology is centered around arrays which contain the natural carbohydrates that one might find in a biological system. The arrays are created by printing tiny dots of the carbohydrates of interest onto a support such as a glass slide, exposing them to carbohydrate binding proteins (CBPs) and finally observing and analysing the interactions. The present proposal aims to apply this technology to important biological problems. For example, we will investigate the binding of carbohydrates to protein components of the human immune system, to viruses, bacteria and enzymes. We will also investigate possible routes of application and commercialisation of the technology in healthcare.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search