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Glycoscience —
Biology's Newest
Unchartered Frontier

by Kathleen Cason

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Intro  |  Part two   |  Part three

Sweet Dreams

CCRC Milestones

Intro

Like wallflowers at the homecoming dance, complex carbohydrates used to attract few suitors. In the world of giant biological molecules, their sexier cousins — DNA and proteins — commanded the most attention.

But over the past decade, the wallflowers have bloomed and scientists are hastening to uncover their secrets. And researchers at UGA’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center are helping lead the way.

Complex carbohydrates are the next frontier in understanding the secret molecular messages that rule the life of our cells. These strings and branching “trees” of sugars have eluded study and their roles have long been neglected. But during the past two decades evidence has been mounting that these macromolecules deserve attention: Carbohydrates determine blood type, regulate plant growth, and even have roles in cancer, diabetes and human development.


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For all cells — plant, microbe and animal — a sugar coating is at the cell’s outer perimeter. It’s what an invader first encounters; it’s what other cells touch. In it resides information that identifies the cell — this one’s a liver cell, that one a skin cell. It may glue similar cells together or unglue cancer cells, allowing them to break loose and travel throughout the body. When invader molecules from a virus, bacterium or fungus touch the outer perimeter, they may trigger self-defense mechanisms in plants or provoke immune responses in animals.

For several decades, CCRC researchers have been on the forefront of glycoscience (“glyco” means sugar). They not only study normal growth and development in plants and animals but also investigate disease processes. When tools did not exist to answer their research questions, CCRC scientists developed new ones. The methods they’ve developed are fueling plant and medical carbohydrate research, not just at the CCRC but worldwide.

“The biology is hard, the chemistry is hard, everything is hard,” said Gerald Hart, a CCRC adviser from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “In glycobiology, in terms of understanding and technology, we’re back where DNA and proteins were in the 1960s. There’s been a lot of progress in the past 10 years but we have a long way to go.”

The following is a snapshot of current research areas and the faculty pioneering glycoscience at the University of Georgia.

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Intro  |  Part two   |  Part three

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