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Molecular BioSystems

Research at the interface between chemistry and the -omic sciences and systems biology.



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Mol. BioSyst., 2008, 4, 707 - 711, DOI: 10.1039/b802217h

Deciphering the glycosaminoglycan code with the help of microarrays

Jose L. de Paz and Peter H. Seeberger

Carbohydrate microarrays have become a powerful tool to elucidate the biological role of complex sugars. Microarrays are particularly useful for the study of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a key class of carbohydrates. The high-throughput chip format enables rapid screening of large numbers of potential GAG sequences produced via a complex biosynthesis while consuming very little sample. Here, we briefly highlight the most recent advances involving GAG microarrays built with synthetic or naturally derived oligosaccharides. These chips are powerful tools for characterizing GAG–protein interactions and determining structure–activity relationships for specific sequences. Thereby, they contribute to decoding the information contained in specific GAG sequences.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b802217h)