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The
Victor Ginsburg Memorial Symposium to be held November 10, 2003
Events to honor the pioneer of modern glycobiology
Rockville,
MD - October 28, 2003 - Friends, family and experts in the
field of glycobiology will gather Monday, November 10th to commemorate
the life and work of Dr. Victor Ginsburg, widely-recognized as one
of the pioneers of glycobiology.
A 1964 paper
co-authored by Ginsburg and B.M. Gesner in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences "cracked open the door and lit
up the field of glycobiology," recalls Dr. John Magnani, lead
organizer of the symposium, who worked as a biochemist in Ginsburg's
lab at the National Institutes of Health, and who now serves as
Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for GlycoMimetics, Inc.
With the publication
of the PNAS paper, the study of carbohydrates as recognition molecules
suddenly came into its own. Scientists would eventually learn that
carbohydrates are important in a variety of cell interactions, from
the attachment of bacteria to tissues in the early stage of infection,
to the promotion of metastasis in some types of cancer.
Currently, researchers
are exploiting this knowledge to develop drugs that prevent infection
or metastasis by blocking or neutralizing the binding of carbohydrates
to proteins or other carbohydrates.
"As a lab
chief and mentor, Victor Ginsburg had a sharply critical mind and
little patience for poor research. At the same time, he was jovial,
good natured, and very loyal and supportive of the researchers he
mentored," remembers Magnani.
Dr. Ginsburg
died March 12, 2003 at Suburban Hospital, near Washington DC.
The all-day
symposium will take place on Monday, November 10th starting at 9:00am
at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda.
A list of confirmed
presentations and papers is available on the Web at http://www.glycomimetics.com.
Inquiries should be directed to Dr. John Magnani at GlycoMimetics,
Inc.
Contact:
Dr. John Magnani
Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
GlycoMimetics, Inc.
301.738.1166
About Glycomimetics,
Inc. (GMI):
GMI is capitalizing
on advances in the field of glycobiology by developing small molecule
drugs that mimic the action of carbohydrates. The Company's initial
focus is on developing anti-inflammatory drugs based on selectin
inhibition.
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