Final Report Summary - AUTOHEPARIN (Automated Synthesis of Heparin and Chondroitin Libraries for the Preparation of Diverse Carbohydrate Arrays) The overall goal of the proposed research is the development of an automated synthesis instrument for the assembly of a large class of complex sugars – the glycosaminoglycans. During the proposal period we have succeeded in preparing the novel building blocks needed, we have invented novel linkers, the connection of the sugar to the polymeric carrier and we have build an instrument to perform the procedure. With a related ERC POC Grant, the instrument and the reagents were commercialized successfully.Using the newly developed method, a large collection of oligosaccharides was prepared and attached to microarray surfaces, dendrimers and quantum dots. These molecular tools were employed to study the interaction of GAGs with growth factors, chemokines and other proteins. These fundamental insights resulted in a second funded ERC-POC grant to develop particular aspects of heparin arrays for use as diagnostics.
