A team of researchers with members from Peking University and WuXi AppTec (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., has designed and built an automated carbohydrate synthesizer that produced polysaccharides of record-breaking length. In their ...
The next time you get a craving for sushi rolls, you may feel a renewed appreciation for the ocean. It's to thank not only for your fish and seaweed wrapper, but, as a new Michigan Medicine study suggests, for the bacteria ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 2, 2022
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176
An international team of scientists including the University of Adelaide has discovered a new complex carbohydrate in moss that could possibly be exploited for health or other uses.
Biotechnology
Apr 23, 2018
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296
All too often, when a person takes a pill full of a potent and effective drug, the drug passes straight through the body, not reaching the organ where it is needed—a waste of money and inconvenient if it is a cold medicine, ...
Polymers
Aug 28, 2013
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Scientists have developed a way to manipulate bacteria so they will grow mutant sugar molecules on their cell surfaces that could be used against them as the key component in potent vaccines.
Feb 23, 2009
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Synthetic, non-biodegradable plastics are major sources of environmental pollution and have prompted rising interest in sustainable, biodegradable alternatives derived from natural polymers. "Tara gum," derived from the seeds ...
Polymers
Jan 15, 2024
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7
Researchers from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) have broken one of the major roadblocks on the path to growing transplantable tissue in the lab: They've found a way to grow the blood vessels and capillaries ...
Biotechnology
Jan 12, 2011
2
0
The dominant theory about antibodies is that they directly target and kill disease-causing organisms. In a surprising twist, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have discovered that certain antibodies ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 14, 2011
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0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of food scientists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has shown that an edible film can be used for wrapping ready-to-eat meat products to deliver a slow release of a naturally occurring ...
Biochemistry
Apr 14, 2010
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0
Here's some sweet news for honey lovers: Researchers in France are reporting development of a simple test for distinguishing 100 percent natural honeys from adulterated or impure versions that they say are increasingly being ...
Other
May 7, 2009
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0
Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure, these macromolecules can have distinct properties from their monosaccharide building blocks. They may be amorphous or even insoluble in water.
When all the monosaccharides in a polysaccharide are the same type, the polysaccharide is called a homopolysaccharide or homoglycan, but when more than one type of monosaccharide is present they are called heteropolysaccharides or heteroglycans.
Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin.
Polysaccharides have a general formula of Cx(H2O)y where x is usually a large number between 200 and 2500. Considering that the repeating units in the polymer backbone are often six-carbon monosaccharides, the general formula can also be represented as (C6H10O5)n where 40≤n≤3000.
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