Sweet medicine - the role of carbohydrates in anti-virals and other drugs

3 December 2013, Gillingham, United Kingdom

Introduction

Carbohydrates surround us in everyday life whether it is the sugar you add to a cup of tea, the paper that you read or a medicine that you take. In a pharmaceutical context, the biological and chemical importance of carbohydrates are commonly overlooked. The lecture will show the ubiquitous role of carbohydrates in everyday life and then take this into a biological context highlighting the most recent advances in technology and knowledge. This will range from the simple sugars such as glucosamine to drugs such as Tamiflu and examples of the vital biological roles played by sugars which may be used to develop new drugs, design diagnostics as well as materials for biological application.