Novel Software Rapidly Models Glycoprotein Structures to Boost Drug Development

Researchers created a new algorithm that allows quick and realistic modeling of sugar chains that are located on the surface of proteins. This will help speed up the development of drugs and vaccines.

More than 75% of proteins located at our cell's surface are covered by sugar chains known as glycans. Glycans are very mobile, which makes the structural elucidation of glycoproteins difficult. Hundreds of thousands of computing hours may be necessary to model glycosylated proteins.

To address this issue, scientists from Germany worked together with researchers from Paris and Taipei to develop GlycoSHIELD. This software provides researchers with enhanced models of glycoprotein structures within minutes. Since glycans affect how proteins interact with different molecules, like therapeutic drugs, studying their morphology and dynamics will be helpful in pharmaceutical research.

For more information, read the journal article in Cell.