Glycan News and Research

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International researchers study glycans that could help clinicians diagnose gastric cancer early

Gastric cancer kills more than 700,000 people each year, mostly in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Though the disease is quite treatable when caught early, symptoms are indistinct and late detection leads to high mortality. The five-year survival rate in the United States is 26.9 percent.

22 Dec 2013

Diverse Neurological Disorders Appear To Share Tangled Metabolic Roots

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10 Oct 2013

Researchers use ARRAYit Microarray Platform to discover important biomarkers

ARRAYit Corporation reports today that researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Northeastern University have used the ARRAYit Microarray Platform to discover biomarkers important in the treatment of prostate cancer.

8 Oct 2013

Study: 3 enzymes required for building sugar superstructure involved in muscular dystrophies

For many inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington disease, the disease-causing genetic mutation damages or removes a protein that has an essential role in the body. This protein defect is the root cause of the disease symptoms.

9 Aug 2013

Scientists develop simple, inexpensive and reliable method of detecting plague pathogen

Diagnosing the presence of Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague, may soon be easier than ever before. Scientists working with Peter Seeberger, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) in Potsdam and Professor at the Freie Universit-t Berlin, have come up with a simple, inexpensive and reliable method of detecting the bacterium.

25 Jul 2013

World’s first “Tribrid” LC-MS launched by Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, introduced the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) system, combining its three mass analyzers –quadrupole, Orbitrap and linear ion trap – in a novel “Tribrid” architecture that offers unprecedented depth of analysis of complex biological samples.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 10 Jun 2013

Changes in normal glycan behavior lead to fatal lysosomal disease, say researchers

From the neurons that enable thought to the keratinocytes that make toenails grow-a complex canopy of sugar molecules, commonly known as glycans, envelop every living cell in the human body.

6 Jun 2013

New technique selectively represses unwanted immune reactions without disabling immune system

The human immune system is remarkably efficient, but sometimes its attack is misdirected, leading to allergies, autoimmune diseases and rejection of transplant organs and therapeutic drugs. Current immune suppressants have major drawbacks, but a team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has demonstrated a new technique that may lead to a better way to selectively repress unwanted immune reactions without disabling the immune system as a whole.

4 Jun 2013

New MIT study reveals that H3N2 strains could pose a risk to humans

In the summer of 1968, a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong Kong. This strain, known as H3N2, spread around the globe and eventually killed an estimated 1 million people.

13 May 2013

New paper advances scientific understanding of glycoproteins’ structure and function

A Simon Fraser University chemist is the lead author on a new paper that advances scientific understanding of the structure and function of glycoproteins, in particular the number and positioning of sugars on them.

14 Feb 2013

Glycan released by parasites might help treat metabolic disorders associated with obesity

On the list of undesirable medical conditions, a parasitic worm infection surely ranks fairly high. Although modern pharmaceuticals have made them less of a threat in some areas, these organisms are still a major cause of disease and disability throughout much of the developing world.

9 Jan 2013

Researchers discover how HIV-infected people develop very powerful antibody responses

Wits researchers have played a pivotal role in an AIDS study published today in the journal, Nature Medicine, which describes how a unique change in the outer covering of the virus found in two HIV infected South African women enabled them to make potent antibodies which are able to kill up to 88% of HIV types from around the world.

23 Oct 2012

Bruker launches BioPharmaCompass 1.1 software

At the 2012 CASSS 9th Symposium on the Practical Applications of Mass Spectrometry in the Biotechnology Industry, Bruker today launches the first software solution to encompass the complete biopharmaceutical characterization challenge, including glycoforms, impurities and modifications.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 12 Sep 2012

Study investigates ability of bifidobacteria to remove glycans from milk glycoproteins

A research team at the University of California, Davis, has found that important and resourceful bacteria in the baby microbiome can ferret out nourishment from a previously unknown source, possibly helping at-risk infants break down components of breast milk.

15 Aug 2012

Powerful new tools can study glycans’ function

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed chemical compounds that can make key modifications to common sugar molecules ("glycans"), which are found on the surface of all cells in our body. The new study presents powerful new tools for studying these molecules' function, for example in cell signaling and immunity, and for investigating new treatments for chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases, cancer metastasis, and related conditions.

11 Jun 2012

G&D, IAVI and GMI partner to develop new HIV/AIDS vaccine

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), GlycoMimetics, Inc. (GMI), and Glycosensors and Diagnostics, LLC (G&D) today announced a collaboration to develop an AIDS vaccine using novel compounds that mimic carbohydrates, called glycomimetics.

10 May 2012

Differentiated luminal-like breast cancer cells can generate larger tumors

New findings in breast cancer research by an international team of scientists contradict the prevailing belief that only basal-like cells with stem cell qualities can form invasive tumors. Research led by Ole William Petersen at the University of Copenhagen (CU) and Mina Bissell of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and has shown that luminal-like cells with no detectable stem cell qualities can generate larger tumors than their basal-like counterparts.

19 Apr 2012

Rotavirus infects certain blood types

Whether you become infected by some strains of rotavirus may depend on your blood type.

16 Apr 2012

New method uses E. coli bacteria to engineer human therapeutic glycoproteins

Escherichia coli - a bacteria considered the food safety bane of restaurateurs, grocers and consumers - is a friend. Cornell University biomolecular engineers have learned to use E. coli to produce sugar-modified proteins for making pharmaceuticals cheaper and faster.

27 Mar 2012

PolyTherics announces acquisition of WEP

PolyTherics Limited, a provider of solutions to biopharmaceutical companies for the improvement of protein and peptide based drugs, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Warwick Effect Polymers, a provider of specialty biopolymers for the modification of biological products.

20 Jan 2012