NMR in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology

This volume focuses on solution and solid-state NMR of carbohydrates, glycoproteins, glyco-technologies, biomass and related topics. It is estimated that at least 80% of all proteins are glycoproteins. Because of the complexity, heterogeneity and flexibility of the sugar chains, the structural biology approaches for glycoconjugates have been generally avoided. NMR techniques although well established for structural analyses of proteins and nucleic acids, cannot be simply applied to this complex class of biomolecules. Nonetheless, recently developed NMR techniques for carbohydrates open the door to conformational studies of a variety of sugar chains of biological interest. NMR studies on glycans will have significant impact on the development of vaccines, adjuvants, therapeutics, biomarkers and on biomass regeneration.

In this volume, the Editors have collected the most up-to-date NMR applications from experts in the field of carbohydrate NMR spectroscopy. Timely and useful, not only for NMR specialists, it will appeal to researchers in the general field of structural biology, biochemistry and biophysics, molecular and cellular biology and material science.

Auteur

Koichi Kato received his PhD in 1991 at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo under the supervision of Professor Yoji Arata, and continued his research as Assistant Professor and Lecturer in the same institution. In 2000 he moved to Nagoya City University as full Professor and, since 2006, he has also been a Visiting Professor at the Glycoscience Institute, Ochanomizu University. In 2008 he moved to his current position at Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, holding a Professor position concurrently at Nagoya City University. His research interests include structural analyses of glycoconjugates by NMR spectroscopy and other biophysical and biochemical methods.

Thomas Peters studied chemistry at the universities of Kiel and Hamburg in Germany. In 1983 he joined the group of Professor Hans Paulsen at the University of Hamburg where he studied the synthesis and conformational analysis of N-glycan chains. Upon completion of his PhD he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Professor David Bundle in Canada pursuing synthetic and conformational studies of bacterial antigens. In 1987 he moved to the laboratory of Professor Heinz Rüterjans, University of Frankfurt where he contributed to the development of Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations for their use in the conformational analysis of carbohydrates. Since 1994 he has held a position as Full Professor at the University of Luebeck. Ongoing research projects in his laboratory range from NMR, to protein expression, to modeling and synthesis.