GLYCAN THERAPEUTICS CORPORATION — Department of Health and Human Services STTR Phase I: NIGMS

Description

Project titleDeveloping heparan sulfate glycan array This proposal is aimed at developing a high throughput method to study the interactions between heparan sulfateHSand proteinsHS is a highly sulfated polysaccharide displaying a wide range of biological functionsGlycan Therapeutics is a company specialized in HS related research productsIn this proposalan HS array technique will be constructed using both a microtiter plate format and a microarray formatThe strength of the company is the capability of synthesizing structurally defined HS oligosaccharides using the chemoenzymatic methodallowing the synthesis of HS oligosaccharide in gram scaleThis synthetic capability will ensure access to the oligosaccharide substrates at low cost and allows Glycan Therapeutics to have full control over the purity of the substratesThis unique strength will enable Glycan Therapeutics to produce high quality HS microtiter plates and HS micro array chips at an affordable priceAimis designed to prepare HS microtiter plates based HS arrayThe major advantage of HS microtiter plate is that they are reusable and convenientNo additional equipment other than a microplate reader is neededFurthermorethis method can be expanded to investigate the roles of HS in cell based functional assaysAimis to prepare HS microarray techniqueThis technique will allow screening a very large number of HS oligosaccharides and proteins using very small amounts of carbohydrate and protein samplesThe HS microarray technology will be readily integrated with existing carbohydrate array methods in a centralized facility specialized in carbohydrate screeningIn phase I studiesa library ofHS oligosaccharides will be affixed on a microtiter plate or on a microarray slide for biological screeningThe HS microtiter plates or array slides will be tested thoroughly to ensure qualityIn the phase II studiesthe number of oligosaccharides on the microtiter plates and array slides will be expanded toto fully represent the structures of HS isolated from natural sourcesSuccess will lead to a convenient and reliable approach for improving research in glycosciences