Sugar Chips

Sugars are key components of glycolipids and glycoproteins found on the cell membrane, and are involved in processes such as cell-to-cell recognition, adhesion and signaling. These phenomena are necessary for tissue growth and repair, and are involved in viral and bacterial invasions of pathogenic organisms. A better understanding of interactions with these glycans could help elucidate intercellular signalling mechanisms, leading to improved diagnostics and the development of therapeutic tools.

This led to the idea of developing new systems inspired by DNA or protein microarray techniques, for more systematic recognition studies, e.g. sugar/protein. Also known as "oligosaccharide microarrays or chips" or "glycoarrays", these systems enable a number of different sugars to be deposited on a surface and interaction with, for example, a protein on the entire surface,...