Journal of Glycobiology
Open Access
ISSN: 2168-958X
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2168-958X
+44 1478 350008
Albert M Wu
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Glycobiol
Lectins are an important class of proteins or glycoproteins that specifically or selectively bind to carbohydrates and play many
critical roles in life processes. In order to characterize recognition roles of lectins, the following aspects have been taken
into consideration: 1. Lectins affinity to monosaccharides; 2. Expression of reactivity’s toward oligosaccharides (mammalian
structural units/recognition units) and finding the most active ligand. However, it is not satisfied because most lectins with the
same mono or oligosaccharide specificity may demonstrate different specificities in reaction with polyvalent forms-it has even
shown a shift of binding specificity of lectin from one type of carbohydrate ligand to another when the density of the specific
carbohydrate changed. Therefore, characterization of lectin specificity has been extended to: 3. Simple oligovalent or cluster
effect; and 4. Complex multivalent or cluster effects. Simple oligovalent effect concerns the reactivity of lectins with oligomeric
glycoconjugates (e.g. branched oligosaccharides carrying several active disaccharides, glycopeptides with several Tα or Tn
glycotopes). A complex multivalent effect applies to interaction with high-molecular or aggregated molecules carrying multiple
glycotopes recognized by a lectin. In this talk, we are focusing on the resulting intensities of three basic recognition factors: 1.
Essential mammalian structural units, 3. their clusters and 4. Poly-valency in the recognition processes.
Albert M Wu obtained his PhD degree with W Pigman, who is the pioneer in glycoproteins, at New York Medical College; and had his Postdoctoral training at
E.A. Kabat’s Lab for Quantitative Immunochemistry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York. He joined as a faculty position at Texas A&M University in
1982; promoted as a Full Professor at Chang-Gung University since 1989; and as Emeritus Professor in 2011. He has published over 120 polyvalent glycotopes
related papers. He is the Chief Editor for three volumes of Molecular Immunology of Complex Carbohydrates 1 to 3 in Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 228, 451, 705 (Springer
Publisher). His major interests are Glycan purification and characterization, recognition factors of glycans and combining sites of lectins and antibodies. He received
many Outstanding Research Awards (1997-2008) from government agents in Taiwan.