Duration: August 2012 to July 2015

Glycans are complex oligosaccharides usually bound to proteins (glycoproteins) or present in their free form like in breast milk (prebiotics). The growing number of studies shows the significance of glycans as biotherapeutic, immunomodulators, vaccines and food supplements.

The objective of this cooperation project is the development of a whole cell biocatalysis of glycans using glycosyl transferases with the participation of cofactors. For this purpose glycosyl transferases and cofactors in bacteria will be expressed ruggedly and the cells will be introduced into a fixed bed reactor.

The project is carried out in cooperation with the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg and is sponsored by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research).

The vision of the cooperation partners is to develop new technologies for glycan biosynthesis and therefore to provide essential and therapeutically relevant oligosaccharides like Lewis X for the biopharmaceutical industry for the development of new drugs and vaccines.

GALAB has many years of experience with the analysis of oligosaccharides and offers you a range of analytical solutions – for example the determination of galacto- and fructo-oligosaccharides (GOS/FOS).