COURSE PERSONNEL
Parastoo
Azadi - Technical Director of Center for
Plant and Microbial Carbohydrates
Dr. Azadi uses mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS, FAB-MS and ES-MS) for the
structural characterization of carbohydrates. Her work involves using chemical
methods in combination with mass spectrometry to elucidate the structures
of carbohydrates.
Geert-Jan
Boons - Professor of Chemistry
Dr. Boons’ research interest focuses on the synthesis and biological
functions of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. Before the 1970s, scientists
solely considered carbohydrates as energy sources, structural components
and protective agents. However, it is now well established that carbohydrates
play key roles in many crucial recognition processes in the living cell.
It has also been recognized that they could provide important leads to
drug discovery. To reveal the biological role of the saccharides, it is
very important to have sufficient amounts of pure and well-defined (poly)saccharides
of different sizes and compositions. Organic synthesis provided important
means to obtain these fragments.
Russell
W. Carlson - Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Technical
Director, Center for Plant and Microbial Carbohydrates
Dr. Carlson's research is directed toward characterizing the molecular
basis for the interaction between a bacterium and a plant or animal host
cell. One system under examination is the nitrogen-fixing symbiotic infection
of legumes by rhizobia. Dr. Carlson also has projects directed toward characterizing
the role that bacterial lipopolysaccharides and lipooligosaccharides play
in determining the pathogenicity of such organisms as Salmonella enteritidis,
Neiserria meningiditis, and Hemophilus influenzae.
John
Glushka - Research Associate
Dr. Glushka’s research interests include using NMR techniques to study
the conformation structures of the glycan moeities of glycoconjugates and
to elucidate mechanisms of intereactions between carbohydrate binding proteins
(lectins) and oligosaccharides.
Debra
Mohnen - Professor of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology
The main research project in Dr. Mohnen’s laboratory is based on the
premise that the most direct way to elucidate the biological functions
of pectin is to understand how pectin is biosynthesized, including the
development of the molecular tools necessary to produce plants with altered
pectin structure. Current efforts center on how the pectic polysaccharide
homogalacturonan (HGA) is synthesized. HGA is a linear polymer of a1,4-linked
galactosyluronic acid that makes up about 60% of the pectic polysaccharides.
Dr. Mohnen’s group has also developed methods to release active galacturonosyltransferase
(GalAT) from membranes in a detergent-solubilized form and characterized
the solubilized enzyme. Parameters critical for solubilizing GalAT in an
active form include the use of exogenous oligogalacturonide (OGA) acceptors,
the addition of EDTA to the solubilization buffer, and the inclusion of
MnCl2 in the reaction.
Kelley
W. Moremen - Professor, Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology
Dr. Moremen’s research interest is on the structure, regulation, and
localization of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis, recognition, and
catabolism of mammalian glycoproteins. Work in his laboratory is focused
on (1) characterization of mammalian glycoprotein biosynthesis and catabolism
by the cloning and characterization of the enzymes involved in these processes,
(2) identification of carbohydrate-binding proteins and their roles in
vertebrate development and physiology, and (3) determination of the structural
and molecular basis for the interaction between carbohydrate-binding proteins
and their oligosaccharide ligands.
Ron
Orlando - Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dr. Orlando uses mass spectrometry (MS) to answer biological questions.
His research also is concerned with developing new methodologies to increase
the amount of information obtained from MS experiments and to reduce the
quantity of material needed for analysis. The procedures developed by Dr.
Orlando and his group can currently elucidate the complete primary structures
of the carbohydrate side chains of glycoproteins (including the stereochemistry,
linkage, and anomeric configuration of each monosaccharide) from only low
picomole quantities of sample.
Michael
Pierce - Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The primary focus of Dr. Pierce’s laboratory is the understanding the
regulation of intercellular recognition and adhesion, particularly those
events that involve protein-oligosaccharide interactions. One topic of
study is the identification of the molecular mechanism that causes oncogenic
changes in oligosaccharide expression and how this alteration may regulate
cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion. Another focus is on determining
the functional consequences of the increase in ?(1,6) branched oligosaccharides
on particular glycoproteins on the cell surface. Pierce’s group is also
studying a new family of vertebrate carbohydrate-binding proteins (lectins),
the first member of this family is an oocyte lectin from the frog Xenopus
laevis.
Robert
J. Woods-Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dr. Woods received both his B.Sc.(Honors) in engineering chemistry
in 1985 and his Ph.D. in 1990 in computational and synthetic organic chemistry
from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He joined the CCRC
in January 1995. Dr. Woods is a senior investigator on a technological
research and development project of the National Institutes of Health Resource
Center for Biomedical Complex Carbohydrates. He has been invited to write
an entry on carbohydrate force fields for the Encyclopedia of Computational
Chemistry. He is a member of UGA’s Campus Information Technology Forum
and the UGA Modeling Laboratory Operations Committee, and has made recent
presentations at the International Carbohydrate Symposium, the Gordon Research
Conferences, and the National Research Council of Canada
Lance
Wells - Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Cancer
Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar
Dr. Wells’ broad research interest is in understanding how post-translational
modifications modulate the properties of proteins. Specifically, we study
"nutrient sensing" by characterizing the enzymes O-GlcNAc transferase,
O-GlcNAcase, mTOR (mammalian target of Rapamycin, a ser-thr kinase), and
AMP-activated protein kinase in mammalian cell culture and animal tissues.
These enzymes have been implicated in responding to nutrients and regulating
signal transduction cascades. Our research is aimed at building on a model
in which cells are not blindly responding to extracellular stimuli but
instead are taking into account their own nutritional states and then responding
appropriately.
William
S. York - Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Dr. York’s research interests are diverse, but unified by the single
goal of developing a realistic model of the assembly and morphogenesis
of the "primary cell walls" that surround the growing cells of higher plants.
He is addressing this problem by examining the structural details of the
cell walls of various plants using a variety of techniques such as the
preparation of fluorescent oligosaccharide derivatives that can be detected
with very high sensitivity in HPLC eluants and the application of matrix-assisted
laser desorption/ionization, time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF
MS). He is also interesting in developing methods to analyze the NMR spectra
of complex glycans.