$7.4 million NIH grant to Franklin researchers

For the second time in two months,  a group of UGA researchers have received significant grant support from the NIH to study and experiment on the sugar molecules known as glycans:

[The researchers] have received a five-year $7.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help better understand one of the most fundamental building blocks of life.

They are tiny chains of sugar molecules called glycans, and they cover the surface of every living cell in the human body-providing the necessary machinery for those cells to communicate, replicate and survive. But they're not all good. Glycans support the function of all cells, including those that cause cancer, viral and bacterial infections, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders.

This makes them an attractive target for new treatments, and the experiments supported by this grant promise to speed the development of new, more effective therapies for many of humanity's most insidious diseases and increase our understanding of the body's most basic cellular functions.

"We know that glycans are involved in almost every aspect of health and disease, but we need to figure out what controls glycan behavior-the machinery that creates glycans and places them on the surface of cells," said Geert-Jan Boons, the principal investigator for the project and researcher at UGA's Complex Carbohydrate Research Center.

...

The entire research team is composed of five professors from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. They are: Geert-Jan Boons, Franklin Professor of chemistry; Kelley Moremen, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; James Prestegard, professor and GRA Eminent Scholar of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology; Richard Steet, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; and Lance Wells, associate professor and GRA Distinguished Investigator of biochemistry and molecular biology.

This is incredibly good news for the research team and toward the development of new therapeutics for whole categories of diseases. Again, the people and facilties put in place by the state, the university and the Franklin College create the synergy with federal funding agencies for scientific research that makes this work a reality. Congratulations to all and continued success in this very important and promising research.

Image: Respository for glycan-related enzymes.