Turnbull Lab News January 2002: Publication of a paper in Development, in collaboration with Atsushi Irie and Christine Holt (University of Cambridge). This paper, involving in-vivo studies in Xenopus brain development, describes how specific heparan Sulphate structures are required for normal retinal axon targetting. May 2001: Award of a second 5 year Senior Research Fellowship to Dr Jeremy Turnbull by the Medical Research Council. This prestigious award funds Dr Turnbull, a postdoctoral Fellow (Dr Scott Guimond) and a technician, plus running expenses and equipment for the period 2001-2006. The topic of research is "Heparan Sulphates as Dynamic Cell Regulators: Structure, Biosynthesis and Mechanisms of Action of the Neural Heparanome" February 2001: Publication of a review entitled "Heparan Sulphate: decoding a dynamic multifunctional cell regulator" in Trends in Cell Biology. This review discusses recent developments in the HS field, the new concept of the " heparanome ", and surveys emerging experimental strategies that hold promise for revealing the functional specificity and mechanisms of action of heparan sulphates as multifunctional cell regulators November 2000: Award of a BBSRC project grant aimed at developing novel HS saccharide libraries using chemo-enzymatic approaches September 2000: Publication of a paper in PNAS, in collaboration with Ram Sasisekharan (MIT). This paper describes the application of sequencing methodologies (IGS and MALDI) to the sequencing of an antithrombin-binding decasaccharide. September 1999: Publication of a paper in Current Biology on activation of FGF receptor signalling by specific HS saccharides. The data indicate that there is considerable specificity for the action of HS saccharides in regulating FGFR signalling. July 1999: Award of a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program on"Genetic & Biochemical Analysis of GAG function in development". The goal is to study the structure and function of GAGs in model organisms, namely the fly (Drosophila) and the worm (C elegans). March 1999: Publication of a paper in PNAS describing the first direct method for sequencing HS and heparin saccharides, called Integral Glycan Sequencing (IGS). This methodology will dramatically enhance future structure-activity studies on these complex polysaccharides. |