Associated Research Groups
Laboratory for Glycobiology
Department of Biochemistry, Physiology en Microbiology
K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35
B-9000 Ghent
Belgium
Tel: +32 9 264 52 72
Contact:
The Laboratory of Glycobiology focuses on enzymology of carbohydrate active enzymes, thus proteins that degrade, modify or create glycosidic bonds (e.g. glycoside hydrolases, glycosyltransferases and carbohydrate esterases), or that contain functional domains (e.g. carbohydrate-binding modules). The research group can rely on more than 40 years of acquired experience, mainly in the characterization and mechanistic study of glycoside hydrolases, an important group of enzymes of which many are of medical and industrial relevance. Different research disciplines (enzymology, in-house organic and chemo-enzymatic synthesis of carbohydrate ligands and chromogenic substrates, affinity chromatography, analysis of 3D-structures, molecular modelling, etc.) are combined in order to achieve the main goal: understanding the details of reaction mechanisms.
Through collaborations with numerous international laboratories, pioneering research has been performed - and is still ongoing - concerning fungal and bacterial enzyme systems involved in the degradation of biomass. Important insights have been gained in the performance and mechanism of cellulases and hemicellulases (e.g. xylanases, mannases, etc.) from different origin. Members of this group of enzymes are already used in important biotechnological applications (pulp and paper, baking, textiles, detergent and animal feeding industry), and have a high potential for applications in the production of bio-ethanol from cellulose-rich stocks and/or waste.
One of the enzyme systems studied in this laboratory is that from the fungus Trichoderma reesei, a very efficient producer of biomass-degrading enzymes and regarded as the model organism to which other biomass-degrading organisms are compared.
The laboratory is involved in contract research with industrial partners to study biomass-degrading enzymes as well as other industrially important ferments.