Tierärztliche  Fakultät der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Lehrstuhl für Physiologische Chemie (Univ.-Prof.  Dr. H.-J. Gabius)

	Focus of Research Coding of biological information has for decades been assigned  to nucleic acids. The genetic code determines the production  of proteins, connecting the biochemical alphabets of nucleotides  and amino acids. From a theoretical point-of-view, the information  storage capacity of oligomers of these "words" is rather  low. By far, oligosaccharides surpass oligonucleotides and -peptides  in this respect (Gabius HJ: Naturwissenschaften 87: 108-121,  2000). The messages encoded in the words established by monosaccharides  as letters are read by sugar receptors such as lectins. Thus,  glycan epitopes of cellular glycoconjugtes and endogenous lectins  (Gabius HJ: Eur J Biochem 243: 543-576, 1997) establish the sugar  code (glycocode). Our long-range goal is to understand this type  of molecular recognition at the atomic level and to delineate  functional importance (for further information, please see following text file). Current projects: Cloning and isolation of animal lectins and their binding  partners Determination of mechanisms of protein-carbohydrate recognition  by X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and thermodynamic  measurements Design of high-affinity ligands for lectin detection in tumor  diagnosis, drug targeting and growth control Generation of cell models by gene transfection for evaluation  of lectin functions Analysis of lectins from phytotherapeuticals (e. g. mistletoe)  and assessment of their preclinical activity spectrum
	Photograph: F.-T. Liu (UC Davis; right); H.-J. Gabius (middle) and H. Kaltner (left)
	Ranking of citation highlights by the Institute of Scientific Information in 1998 listed our work on position 2 in the Hot Papers Database. This database includes highly cited reports during the two preceding years. Scientists Ranked by Number of Hot Papers 1998 Rank Name Institution Field Number of Hot Papers 1 John C. Reed Burnham Institute Cell Biology 9 2 Hans-Joachim Gabius University of Munich Biochemistry 8 3 Bert Vogelstein Kenneth W. Kinzler HHMI, Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University Molecular Biology Molecular Biology 7 7 4 J. Craig Venter Ronald M. Evans Institute for Genomic Research HHMI, Salk Institute Genomics Genetics 6 6 Source: SCIENCE WATCH Vol. 10, No. 2, 1999

 

	Dr. Kaltner explaining the history of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (Munich)

          Recent  Publications

             Textbooks

	Impressions from a visit to Prof. Wu (Taiwan) and Interlec21 (Japan), May 2004
	Prof. Gabius and Dr. Yamazaki at Shonan Village Center (Japan)
	Dr. André and Prof. Wu at Shonan Village Center
	Prof. Gabius & Prof. Kasai in front of the invisible Mt. Fuji
	Dr. André and Prof. Kojima (Tokyo)

Last update: 21.06.2004