The next IECB monthly seminar will be held on June 6th at 11:00 AM.
 

The speaker, Professor Bernard Henrissat from the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark , Lyngby,

will present a seminar entitled:  Molecular details of mucin breakdown.

Mucins are very large proteins with a very long domain rich in serines and threonines, bearing oligosaccharide chains which protect these proteins against proteolysis. This is an invaluable feature, as mucins form the constantly renewed barrier that protects our intestinal and pulmonary tissues from microbes. Some commensal microbes are able to degrade mucins in a controlled way, using their oligosaccharides as a carbon source, but some pathogens are much more aggressive and are able to bypass the protection of mucin polypeptide chains by oligosaccharides. This seminar will present recent progress in elucidating the molecular mechanisms that enable this bypass.