Orthogonal approaches for studying glycosaminoglycan biopolymer
by
Vittal Srinivas
Doctoral Candidate
when
Monday, November 23, 2009
Time: 3:00 PM
to 5:00 PM
where
282 BioScience Research Collaborative
abstract
Chondroitin/Dermatan sulfate glycosaminoglycans are heterogeneous biopolymers that occur either natively or as part of proteoglycans in the extracellular matrix of eukaryotes. Since their generation is through a non-template driven enzymatic process, understanding the composition and sulfation pattern on any given chain is fraught with multiple hurdles. This thesis extends an approach used to understand heparin by developing a novel combination of lyases and sulfatases and applies FACE and NMR techniques to study eventual composition of degradation products. It then proceeds with understanding coarse-sizing, and bulk properties of these polymers using analytical ultracentrifugation and rheology and tries to capture how the in-vivo environment may look like at physiological concentrations of these polymers. Since proteins and cellular organelles function in an obstacle rich environment it became critical that an understanding of these polymers be done at various scales ranging from O(nm) to O(mm). These orthogonal techniques together seem to indicate that function of these polymers may be governed at multiple hierarchical levels starting with molecular level sulfation/isomerization which inturn contributes to structural level rigidity and even bulk viscosity. This work may have wide application in developing glycan derived polymers for tissue engineering applications, wherein, multiple properties can be encoded through complex backbone modifications.
Department of Bioengineering, Dr. Jennifer West, Chair
Mailing Address: MS-142, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005-1892
Physical Address: 6500 Main Street, Suite 135, Houston, TX 77030
