Objective
Oligosaccharides are a diverse class of carbohydrates widely distributed in Nature. Their biological significances range from roles as structural elements and energy sources to being ubiquitous constituents on mammalian, bacterial and viral cell surfaces, where they are involved in cell recognition events.
Both the selective modification of cell surface glycan structures and the production of competitive glycan ligands are important research areas with potential for developing novel therapeutics. The chemic al synthesis of oligosaccharides is a multi-step endeavour and is particularly difficult in analog synthesis, where additional steps are required to introduce modifications.
Increasingly chemists are employing enzymes to take advantage of their rate acceleration, stereoselectivity, regiospecificity and environmentally friendly green chemistry conditions. Our biocatalytic GlycoEngineering approach uses glycosyltransferases that catalyse the transfer of a monosaccharide from a nucleotide donor to an acceptor.
We have identified the blood group A and B synthesizing enzymes (GTA and GTB) as models for studying retaining glycosyltransferases. GTA and GTB will be employed for the synthesis of modified blood group glycostructures, using both enzyme engineering and substrate engineering.
Based on X-ray and NMR studies of ligand binding to GTA and GTB, different UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine and UDP-galactose donor analogs will be designed with docking and molecular modelling. To overcome potential limitations of native G TA and GTB in analog preparation, their substrate specificities will be broadened by mutagenesis based on sequence, structure and modelling studies.
Donor substrate analogs will be chemi-enzymatically prepared and used with native and mutated GTA and GTB t o synthesize modified oligosaccharide structures. This unique GlycoEngineering approach encompasses engineering both the enzymes and their substrates and can be broadly applied to other glycosyltransferases.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology mineralogy crystallography
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules carbohydrates
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics nucleotides
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
COPENHAGEN
Denmark
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.