Why glycosylation?

Glycosides, containing a variety of sugars, are highly abundant in nature, functioning in key processes in living cells and organisms.  The glycans play a variety of roles, from structural molecules and energy stores through to recognition elements that enable cells and molecules to communicate and interact with one another. 

Many natural products such as those made by microorganisms and plants exist as glycosides.  These glycans, attached to natural product scaffolds, play important roles in recognition and functional activity.  Thus, the physical, chemical and biological properties of small molecules are altered by glycosylation and this applies both to natural scaffolds made by living organisms and non-natural scaffolds that are designed and chemically synthesized.

Nature relies on glycans as “recognition tools”.  The science and technology toolkit of Glytech is able to influence these key recognition events in living organisms through adding and changing the glycans attached to small molecule natural and non-natural scaffolds.  In this way, existing natural products and newly designed chemical scaffolds can be modified for multiple uses, from novel antimicrobials and pharmaceuticals with increased solubility to immunomodulators and more stable nutraceuticals.