Sialic acid is an acidic sugar with 9 carbon atoms found in different classes of biomolecules such as sphingolipids (gangliosides) and glycoproteins. Sialic acid is involved in several biological processes, from differentiation to recognition between cells up to the phenomena that lead to neoplastic transformation. The levels of sialic acid are regulated by transferases and hydrolases that specifically recognized this sugar. In particular, sialidases are able to remove sialic acid from sialoconjugates, with characteristic specificity and subcellular localization. Sialidases are studied using different cell systems and model organisms, with experimental approaches in continuous evolution.
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DMMT, Sezione di biotecnologie, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia
date/time interval:
(November 1, 2012 - )