Glycan arrays and other tools produced by automated glycan assembly
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Peter H. SeebergerSummaryCarbohydrates are the dominant biopolymer on earth and play important roles ranging from building material for plants to function in many biological systems. Glycans remain poorly studied due to a lack of synthetic tools. The goal of my laboratory has been to develop a general method for the automated assembly of glycans. The general protocols we developed resulted in the commercialisation of the Glyconeer 2.1™ synthesizer as well as the building blocks and all reagents. Oligosaccharides as long as 50-mers are now ...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Latest developments in Semantic Web technologies applied to the glycosciences
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Kiyoko F. Aoki-Kinoshita, Nobuyuki P. Aoki, Akihiro Fujita, Noriaki Fujita, Toshisuke Kawasaki, Masaaki Matsubara, Shujiro Okuda, Toshihide Shikanai, Daisuke Shinmachi, Elena Solovieva, Yoshinori Suzuki, Shinichiro Tsuchiya, Issaku Yamada, Hisashi NarimatsuSummaryThe Integrated Life Science Database Project of Japan funded a group of glycoscientists to carry out a project to integrate glycoscience databases using Semantic Web technologies. As a continuation of the previous project period, the Japan Consortium for Glycobiology and Glycotechno...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
GLYDE-II: The GLYcan data exchange format
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Rene Ranzinger, Krys J. Kochut, John A. Miller, Matthew Eavenson, Thomas Lütteke, William S. YorkSummaryThe GLYcan Data Exchange (GLYDE) standard has been developed for the representation of the chemical structures of monosaccharides, glycans and glycoconjugates using a connection table formalism formatted in XML. This format allows structures, including those that do not exist in any database, to be unambiguously represented and shared by diverse computational tools. GLYDE implements a partonomy model based on human language along with rul...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Bioinformatics applications to aid high-throughput glycan profiling
This article briefly describes our robotic platform and concentrates on a set of software tools for the interpretation of quantitative glycoprofiling data. (Source: Perspectives in Science)
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Bioinformatics of glycosaminoglycans
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Han Hu, Yang Mao, Yu Huang, Cheng Lin, Joseph ZaiaSummaryCell surface heparan sulfates modulate many signalling pathways by binding growth factors and growth factor receptors. Expressed in a spatially and temporally regulated manner, these highly sulfated polysaccharides play important roles in all aspects of animal physiology. To understand heparan sulfate-protein binding, it is necessary to develop instrumental sequencing methods. Towards this end, we and others have demonstrated the effectiveness of activated electron dissociation (ExD) t...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Complex carbohydrate recognition by proteins: Fundamental insights from bacteriophage cell adhesion systems
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Nina K. Broeker, Dorothee Andres, Yu Kang, Ulrich Gohlke, Andreas Schmidt, Sonja Kunstmann, Mark Santer, Stefanie BarbirzSummaryProtein–glycan interactions are ubiquitous in nature. Molecular description of complex formation and the underlying thermodynamics, however, are not well understood due to the lack of model systems. Bacteriophage tailspike proteins (TSP) possess binding sites for bacterial cell surfaces oligosaccharides. In this article we describe the analysis of TSP-oligosaccharide complexes. TSP provide large glycan interaction...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
2-C-Branched mannosides as a novel family of FimH antagonists—Synthesis and biological evaluation
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Wojciech Schönemann, Marcel Lindegger, Said Rabbani, Pascal Zihlmann, Oliver Schwardt, Beat ErnstSummaryUrinary tract infections (UTIs), which are among the most prevalent bacterial infections worldwide, are mainly attributed to uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Because of frequent antibiotic treatment, antimicrobial resistance constitutes an increasing therapeutic problem. Antagonists of the mannose-specific bacterial lectin FimH, a key protein mediating the adhesion of UPEC to human bladder cells, would offer an alternative anti-adhe...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Protein–glycosaminoglycan interaction networks: Focus on heparan sulfate
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Sylvie Ricard-BlumSummarySulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are complex polysaccharides, which are covalently bound to protein cores to form proteoglycans. They are mostly located at the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix (ECM) where they regulate numerous biological processes. The aim of our work is (i) to identify and characterize protein–GAG interactions occurring at the cell surface and in the ECM, (ii) to study the assembly of multimolecular complexes formed at the cell surface via protein–heparan sulfate interactions, (ii...
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Epilogue—Unravelling Glycan Complexity
Publication date: January 2017Source: Perspectives in Science, Volume 11Author(s): Weston B. Struwe (Source: Perspectives in Science)
Source: Perspectives in Science - July 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research
Bioinformatics applications to aid high-throughput glycan profiling
This article briefly describes our robotic platform and concentrates on a set of software tools for the interpretation of quantitative glycoprofiling data. (Source: Perspectives in Science)
Source: Perspectives in Science - April 12, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: research
The impact of defining glycan structures
Publication date: January 2017 Source:Perspectives in Science, Volume 11 Author(s): Johannes F.G. Vliegenthart For gaining insight in the mode of action at the molecular level of glycans in biological systems precise knowledge of the structure of the glycans is indispensable. To obtain this fundamental information well-defined starting material, optimal fractionation methods and adequate identification techniques are essential. In this review, the emphasis is on the application of high resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy to the structure determination of glycans of different origin. The power of 1H NMR spectroscopy is the po...
Source: Perspectives in Science - April 12, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: research
DIDATTICA DELLA CHIMICA E TRASPOSIZIONE DIDATTICA Parte seconda - Un ’approccio didattico alla costruzione del concetto di trasformazione chimica
Publication date: December 2016 Source:Perspectives in Science, Volume 10 Author(s): Elena Ghibaudi, Ezio Roletto, Alberto Regis Questa seconda parte illustra un esempio di trasposizione didattica realizzata in Italia, in classi della scuola secondaria di II grado. Oggetto della trasposizione sono i concetti di trasformazione chimica, di reazione chimica e di equazione di reazione; un risultato di questo percorso è l’introduzione della distinzione fra le nozioni di atomo e molecola da parte degli allievi stessi, come ipotesi necessaria per interpretare la fenomenologia osservata. L’approccio adottato in questa se...
Source: Perspectives in Science - March 7, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: research
DIDATTICA DELLA CHIMICA E TRASPOSIZIONE DIDATTICA Parte prima – I fondamenti teorici di una prassi
Publication date: December 2016 Source:Perspectives in Science, Volume 10 Author(s): Elena Ghibaudi, Ezio Roletto, Alberto Regis Dopo una riflessione sulla differenza tra sapere, conoscenza e informazione e sull’equilibrio dei rapporti tra insegnante, allievo e sapere, che una didattica efficace deve garantire, questo lavoro affronta il problema della trasposizione didattica, inteso come il processo attraverso il quale il sapere sapiente può divenire sapere insegnato. Vengono discussi diversi aspetti inerenti la prassi della trasposizione didattica in ambito scientifico e, più specificamente, nella chimica. Tra es...
Source: Perspectives in Science - March 7, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: research
Der Einfluss der Stundenl änge (45 vs. 60 Minuten) auf ausgewählte Aspekte der Unterrichtsqualität im Physikunterricht am Gymnasium
Publication date: December 2016 Source:Perspectives in Science, Volume 10 Author(s): R. Wackermann, J. Hater Obwohl bislang kaum Untersuchungen zur optimalen zeitlichen Strukturierung von Unterricht vorliegen, verlängern einige Schulen in Deutschland zurzeit die Schulstundenlänge auf 60 (auch 65 oder 67,5 usw.) Minuten. Die vorliegende empirische Studie untersucht die Auswirkungen der Stundenverlängerung auf die Unterrichtsqualität im Physikunterricht der Sekundarstufe I. Dazu wurde der 60-Minuten-Unterricht von zwei Lehrkräften aufgezeichnet und ausgewertet und mit dem 45-Minuten-Unterricht derselben Lehrkräfte ...
Source: Perspectives in Science - March 7, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: research
From enzymology to systems biology and back – Epilog
Publication date: December 2016 Source:Perspectives in Science, Volume 9 Author(s): Peter Halling (Source: Perspectives in Science)
Source: Perspectives in Science - January 7, 2017 Category: Science Source Type: research
