Complexity of Sugars

Upstream Glycomics - By Erika Jonietz- October 2001

One reason that sugar biology, or glycobiology, has lagged behind the study of genes and proteins is that, until very recently, researchers lacked effective tools for studying carbohydrate molecules. Part of the problem is the complexity of sugars. While DNA and proteins have essentially linear sequences, sugars branch; DNA has just four basic building blocks and proteins have 20, but sugars have more than 30. "We truly haven't cracked the code yet," says MIT glycobiologist Ram Sasisekharan. "We are just beginning to unravel the mysteries of sugars."
Indeed, Sasisekharan's lab developed the first practical method for sequencing sugars only two years ago. And MIT chemist Peter H. Seeberger demonstrated the first automated machine for sugar synthesis in February. Just as the invention of the automated DNA sequencer and synthesizer in the mid-1980s opened up the field of genomics, the availability of such tools is heating up glycomics. Knowledge of sugars' functions could affect medicine far beyond improving drug doses and fighting cancer. Researchers are looking into how sugars influence the development of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and infectious diseases like AIDS and herpes, to name a few. Sugars also seem poised to influence stem cell biology, organ transplantation and tissue engineering. If these promising areas of research prove successful, "sugar pills" will take on a whole new meaning.

Glyconutrients early research suggests an increase in production cell reconstruction.