Carbohydrate-protein interactions

To improve the understanding of the biological role of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates, the interactions of carbohydrates with their receptor pro teins are studied. For this purpose, the natural carbohydrate ligands are p repared by chemical and enzymatic synthesis, and structure-activity relatio nships are established, The conformational analysis of such ligands in solu tion and bound to receptor proteins, in conjunction with docking studies, r eveals major aspects of the carbohydrate-protein recognition process at a m olecular level. This knowledge is of practical importance for the rational design of carbohydrate mimics.