Using a nanopore, researchers have demonstrated the potential to reduce the time required for sequencing a glycosaminoglycan — a class of long chain-linked sugar molecules as important to our biology as DNA — from years to minutes.
Envisioning an animal-free drug supply, scientists have — for the first time — reprogrammed a common bacterium to make a designer polysaccharide molecule used in pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals.
Armed with evidence that a specific site on heparan sulfate — known as the 3-O-sulfate group — is critical to the transfer of harmful tau proteins in the brain, a research program funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Aging is scrutinizing the interactions between heparan sulfate and tau, determining how misfolded tau spreads in the brain, and developing strategies to block it.
The loss of memory and cognitive function known to afflict survivors of septic shock is the result of a sugar that is released into the blood stream and enters the brain during the life-threatening condition.
To infect its victims, influenza A heads for the lungs, where it latches onto sialic acid on the surface of cells. So researchers created the perfect decoy: A carefully constructed spherical nanoparticle coated in sialic acid lures the influenza A virus to its doom.
Discovery of rules that govern a variation of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing method makes it possible to use living cells to manufacture valuable metabolic compounds like pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals.
Renowned biotechnology innovators Robert Linhardt and Jonathan Dordick have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors
Researchers at Rensselaer and UNC have created a synthetic form of heparin that can be reversed in cases of overdose.
A team including Rensselaer researchers have discovered that a specific gene may play a major role in the development of a life-threatening birth defect.
Researchers have developed an ultrasensitive method for detecting sugar molecules—or glycans—coming from living organisms.