Carbomet

There are a number of challenges in technological, manufacturing and regulatory aspects of carbohydrates, in particular in 3 Enabling Technology Areas which need to be addressed to ensure full exploitation of the opportunities identified. Techniques for quantitative, structural characterisation of carbohydrates thus ensuring technical specification... s for manufacturing and regulatory requirements are met. Defining the range of standards and reference materials required, and their specifications, will present major synthetic challenges in their production. To provide reference data, to understand the complex activity structure relationships of carbohydrates and to act as viable alternative tools for in vitro testing. These have been identified as of immediate interest for CarboMet where the exploitation of carbohydrates will have huge impact: The number of pharmaceuticals based on glycans, glycan targets and glycosylated products is rapidly increasing both in number and market share. Products such as heparin, cyclodextrin, carbohydrate-based vaccines, and vancomycin have been on the market for a long time. Recent examples include Tamiflu and Relenza, which were developed to treat the bird flu virus. With the advent of biopharmaceuticals such as human erythropoietin and therapeutic antibodies, glycoconjugates will continue to increase. As the degree of molecular complexity increases so does the range of analytical techniques required. Glycosylated biopharmaceuticals such as glycoproteins provide particular challenges in R&D and quality control during production. A positioning paper was published highlighting the challenges and opportunities of carbohydrate-based vaccines with a particular focus on antimicrobial resistance. Click here to download the briefing paper on AMR vaccine All cells, including human cells, have carbohydrates on their surface, known as the glycocalyx. This coating of glycolipids and glycoproteins controls a variety of fundamental biological processes, for example fertilization, immunology ...Read More