RACI Athel Beckwith Lectureship

Glycobiology: The Development of Chemical Tools to Study Carbohydrates

Assoc/Prof Keith Stubbs

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Western Australia

Glycobiology is the study of the structures and roles of carbohydrates in biology. Carbohydrates are present in every living system and traditionally, have been known for their role in structural integrity and as energy sources. Recently, however, carbohydrates have been shown to be involved in a variety of fundamental biological processes such as protein folding and trafficking, as well as cellular signaling and regulation. As a result glycoconjugates continue to be uncovered as important factors in health and disease.

As we gain greater understanding into the roles that carbohydrates play at the cellular level, chemists need to develop carbohydrate-based tools to investigate the specific roles that a single mono- or polysaccharide plays in the dynamics of the cell. This seminar will describe examples from my laboratory of the development of chemical-based tools to study specific carbohydrate-processing enzymes and how they can be used in the field of glycoscience.