Kari Pederson, a postdoctoral research associate at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, received $55,000 from the National Institutes of Health to examine glycosaminoglycans, or GAGs, as they relate to disease treatment.
GAGs are expressed ubiquitously on mammalian cell surfaces and interact with a variety of biological molecules to regulate various processes, including immune response, regulation of cell growth and blood-stream clotting.
A number of viruses, including vaccinia virus, the most studied member of the pox virus family, initiate infection of cells and suppress immune defense by binding to cell surface GAGs, and recently have been shown to be effective in cancer therapy.