• Question: What uses would your research with protein toxins have? Would the 'clever carbohydrates' be used medically?

    Asked by dunneyjim to Tom on 9 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Tom Branson

      Tom Branson answered on 9 Mar 2013:

      Yes definitely, to fight against diseases. The idea is that my carbohydrates are designed to bind tightly to the protein toxins which will stop them interacting with natural carbohydrates that are on your cells.

      Cholera works like this, with 5 binding sites on each toxin which makes it really good at binding to your cells. To prevent this from happening, I have designed carbohydrates that can fill up all the 5 binding sites at once and so if you are infected the toxin should pass through your body harmlessly and not make you ill.

Comments

  • Photo: drgarcia

    drgarcia commented on :

    Excellent question! I would add “what timescale do you expect for your research to be widely used in medical treatments?”
    Thanks Tom.

  • Photo: Tom

    Tom commented on :

    @DrGarcia As with any drug or treatment that would be used on humans, there are a lot of trials and tests that it has to go through which takes years. So I don’t expect to make any big medical advances yet, but in a few years when the science has been developed further it could start to be tried out.

    The processes I am working on and the techniques we are building may also be useful for other people in designing new protein drugs. And so they could take my research further in the future.