This award supports Fu-Tong Liu and students from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in a collaboration with Hans-Joachim Gabius of the Department of Physiology at the University of Munich, Germany. The research focus is on the analysis of the recognition of glycans by their receptors, such as Galectin. Galectin, only recently described, has been shown to be involved in fundamental biological processes such as growth control, cell adhesion, and cell migration. In order to understand the functions or the galectin family, it is necessary to understand the structures of the proteins and to deign galectin-type-specific inhibitors to interfere with the activity of a certain galectin. This international collaboration will employ complementary expertise and facilities, since the U.S. side has extensive experience in molecular cloning of recombinant galectins and development of mice with targeted deletion of a specific galectin, and the German group has developed experience in a variety of physicochemical measurements. This joint collaborative research effort also presents junior researchers with the opportunity to work internationally, and the work done on this proposal will help institutionalize the relationship between the German and U.S. research groups.
