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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Chemistry

Selected Works

John F. Rakus

Selected Works

2015

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

New Technologies For Glycomic Analysis: Toward A Systematic Understanding Of The Glycome, John Rakus, Lara Mahal Jul 2015

New Technologies For Glycomic Analysis: Toward A Systematic Understanding Of The Glycome, John Rakus, Lara Mahal

John F. Rakus

Carbohydrates are the most difficult class of biological molecules to study by high-throughput methods owing to the chemical similarities between the constituent monosaccharide building blocks, template-less biosynthesis, and the lack of clearly identifiable consensus sequences for the glycan modification of cohorts of glycoproteins. These molecules are crucial for a wide variety of cellular processes ranging from cell-cell communication to immunity, and they are altered in disease states such as cancer and inflammation. Thus, there has been a dedicated effort to develop glycan analysis into a high-throughput analytical field termed glycomics. Herein we highlight major advances in applying separation, mass spectrometry, …


Using Lectinmicroarrays To Identify Regulatory Mechanisms For Mammalian Glycosylation, John F. Rakus Jul 2015

Using Lectinmicroarrays To Identify Regulatory Mechanisms For Mammalian Glycosylation, John F. Rakus

John F. Rakus

Glycosylation involves the post-translational addition of carbohydrates to protein molecules and is an intricate and indispensable biochemical process. Study of this complicated network of interactions is hindered by the lack of a coding template analogous to the genetic code, and by the vast structural complexity inherent to carbohydrate polymers. We use lectins (non-enzymatic carbohydrate-binding proteins of non-immunological origin) as microarray probes to identify carbohydrate features expressed on cellular surfaces. Specifically, we utilized lectin microarray technology to investigate the differences in carbohydrates expressed by the cell lines of the Nation Cancer Institute’s NCI-60 panel. Our investigation identified tissue-specific expression differences in …


Mir-30b/30d Regulation Of Galnac Transferases Enhances Invasion And Immunosuppression During Metastasis, Avital Gaziel-Sovran, Miguel Segura, Raffaella Di Micco, Mary Collins, Douglas Hanniford, Eleazar De Miera, John Rakus, John Dankert, Shulian Shang, Robert Kerbel, Nina Bhardwaj, Yongzhao Shao, Farbod Darvishian, Jiri Zavadil, Adrian Erlebacher, Lara Mahal, Iman Osman, Eva Hernando Jul 2015

Mir-30b/30d Regulation Of Galnac Transferases Enhances Invasion And Immunosuppression During Metastasis, Avital Gaziel-Sovran, Miguel Segura, Raffaella Di Micco, Mary Collins, Douglas Hanniford, Eleazar De Miera, John Rakus, John Dankert, Shulian Shang, Robert Kerbel, Nina Bhardwaj, Yongzhao Shao, Farbod Darvishian, Jiri Zavadil, Adrian Erlebacher, Lara Mahal, Iman Osman, Eva Hernando

John F. Rakus

To metastasize, a tumor cell must acquire abilities such as the capacity to colonize new tissue and evade immune surveillance. Recent evidence suggests that microRNAs can promote the evolution of malignant behaviors by regulating multiple targets. We performed a microRNA analysis of human melanoma, a highly invasive cancer, and found that miR-30b/30d upregulation correlates with stage, metastatic potential, shorter time to recurrence, and reduced overall survival. Ectopic expression of miR-30b/30d promoted the metastatic behavior of melanoma cells by directly targeting the GalNAc transferase GALNT7, resulted in increased synthesis of the immunosuppressive cytokine IL-10, and reduced immune cell activation and recruitment. …