Bioinformatics & The
Consortium
The Consortium for Functional
Glycomics is a global
research initiative funded
by the National Institute
for General Medical Sciences.
Its aim is to understand
the role of carbohydrate-protein
interactions at the cell
surface in cell-cell
communication. To this
end, the Consortium has
set out to build an infrastructure
to facilitate glycomics
research. This currently
consists of scientific
cores that are dedicated
to generating reagents
and developing technologies,
and subsequently making
these available to researchers
worldwide. We have employed
a bioinformatics approach
to create a central database
of glycomics data. This
central repository is
the composite of relational
databases which incorporate
the information generated
by various scientific
cores. This collective
in turn allows for the
seamless integration,
data mining, and analysis
of complementary data
sets. |
Sequencing
Effective and rapid
sequencing methods developed
for work with proteins
and nucleic acids have
promoted the elucidation
of structure-function
relationships in proteins
and DNA. The development
of similar sequencing
strategies for complex
glycans has thus far
been limited by their
structural diversity
as well as by the lack
of information regarding
template-based synthesis
of these molecules. There
are currently a few limited
approaches for sequencing
complex polysaccharides.
We have developed a more
rapid and effective sequencing
strategy for heparin
sulfate glycosaminoglycans
that uses powerful computational
methods to manipulate
the experimental data
obtained through the
chemical or enzymatic
degradation of polymer
chains. These integrated
technologies permit the
researcher to analyze
a biological sample and
converge at a single,
final glycan sequence. |
