From the Back Cover
Introduces the emerging field of carbohydrate nanotechnology with emphasis on its applications to biological systems
When nanoparticles or nanostructures are integrated with complex carbohydrate structures, they are equipped with the biological functions of carbohydrates. This advances their applications to carbohydrate-binding proteins, creation of nanoscale carbohydrate vaccines, carbohydrate-based imaging, as well as therapeutics based on carbohydrate-related targets. At the rate of the field's growth, it is possible to foresee the future realm of nanostructures built solely from carbohydrates, leading to profound applications in biomaterials or any functional materials with unique physical and mechanical properties.
Well-researched and interdisciplinary, Carbohydrate Nanotechnology explores the possibilities created by integrating carbohydrates with nanostructures for the study of carbohydrate-protein interactions, as well as sensing, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. The features of this monograph include:
- Extensive coverage of methods used to create and modify nanostructures such as gold nanoparticles, dendrimers, or magnetic particles with carbohydrates of biological significance
- Discussion of new advances in carbohydrate microarray technology based on the use of modified nanostructures
- Applications of modified nanoparticles to imaging of cell surface structure, as well as of carbohydrate-modified nanostructures, for the sensing of glycoforms and of glycoproteins
- Selected therapeutic applications in the realm of cancer, vaccines, and infectious diseases, and safety-related aspects of therapeutic use of carbohydrate-modified nanoparticles
Not limited to carbohydrate chemists, chemical biologists, medicinal chemists, or pharmaceutical industries, this book will be a unique resource for interested researchers to learn a range of methods of applying the techniques used to characterize the physical and biological properties of carbohydrate-modified nanostructures to their own work. Greater access, as well as greater collaboration, to this new interdisciplinary field is intended for both synthetic carbohydrate chemists and researchers in nanoscience-related fields.
Keith J. Stine, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Missouri -- St. Louis. He spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at University of California Los Angeles working in the field of monolayers at the water-air interface in the lab of Prof. Charles M. Knobler. His research has focused on a range of projects related to molecular organization and recognition at interfaces, often of biological significance, including monolayers of chiral molecules, cyclodextrins, natural product -membrane interactions, and most recently of carbohydrate derivatives in collaboration with Prof. Alexei Demchenko. His work in the area of carbohydrate nanotechnology involves the application of nanoporous gold as a support for iterative carbohydrate synthesis and for the study of carbohydrate -- protein binding.
