"I think the biotechnology of complex carbohydrates, and the research that derives from it, is something that will blossom into a scientific revolution, like molecular biology did in the early '70s and '80s," says Howard C. Krivan, president of three-year-old MicroCarb Inc., a Gaithersburg, Md.-based company dedicated to developing infectious disease diagnostics and vaccines based on human carbohydrate cell-surface receptors. "The understanding of the vital biological role of carbohydrates and their applications in medicine--such as the binding of disease-causing microorganisms to carbohydrates on cells, which is what my company focuses on--is growing rapidly."
Such enthusiasm for the study and commercial exploitation of carbohydrates in the pharmaceutical industry is a recent phenomenon. Although carbohydrates have long been of interest to the food industry, only a few carbohydrate-based drugs are currently marketed for clinical use, such as heparin, a drug that prolongs blood clotting. According to James N. BeMiller, director of the ...
