Current Topics in Carbohydrate Biotechnology

An annual course of the BioUpdate Foundation and the Biotechnology Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry, to be held at the Sutton Bonington Campus of the University of Nottingham. 10 to 11 April 2008

Course Introduction and Aims

The science and biotechnology of large carbohydrate molecules and their derivatives is of major importance in the Life and Ecological Sciences and in several branches of industry, because of the attributes of these large, environmentally friendly (and largely biomedically non-toxic) molecules. This course provides an overview of the diverse properties of carbohydrates, how there are produced and characterised and how their properties can be adapted for particular needs.

Who should attend

The course is designed primarily for industrial scientists who are actively involved in carbohydrate chemistry and technology, particularly in the isolation, modification, purification, characterisation, quality control and in product/process development.

It is designed also for IP lawyers, for biopharma and food companies who need to understand the technologies behind these increasingly relevant molecules, particularly in vaccine and drug delivery products.

It also caters for technologists, marketing managers and engineers, charged with the development of novel products/ processes in which carbohydrates form a key element, e.g. biofuels. A knowledge of basic carbohydrate chemistry and nomenclature will be required (advice can be given on this matter).

Course Outline

Important carbohydrate polymers - nomenclature, structures, comparisons with other biopolymers.

The carbohydrate business. Scope of carbohydrate biotechnology. Plant and microbial sources. Fermentation and downstream processing. Economics and engineering aspects.

Characterisation by composition and sequence analysis.

Laboratory demonstrations of currently used analytical techniques.

Physical characterisation (size, shape, charge) and IP 'preferred' methodologies, Viscometry, SEC-MALLS, Analytical Ultracentrifugation, Imaging methods.

Unique properties of carbohydrates which make them useful in several branches of industry: rigidity, elasticity, flexibility, solubility (or not), molecular mobility, gelation, water relationships.

Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical processing/stabilising aids: Uses as crystal nucleation agents during water removal by freeze-drying and as lyoprotectants of labile therapeutic agents.

Course Topics

1. Biosynthesis of cell wall polymers.
2. Mucoadhesives.
3. Carbohydrate vaccines.
4. Naturally modified carbohydrate biomass (e.g. lignins) as raw materials for the production of 'green' materials, e.g. biofuels

The course starts at 10.00am on Thursday 10 April and finishes by 1.00 pm on Friday 11 April 2008.