Friday, May 27, 2016

Creation Moment 5/28/2016 - Ganglioside of Starfish

And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
Genesis 1:26
"The synthesis of natural glycans and their derivatives, such as gangliosides, is a challenge for organic chemists. Several
gangliosides isolated from the marine phylum of echinoderms (e.g., starfishes or sea stars) have been found to have potent neuritogenic properties, i.e., they promote the formation of nerve cells.
 Given the lack of generalized synthetic methods available, the work towards these large and complex structures involves a lot of trial and error.
The synthetic route makes use of multiple glycosylation reactions for the synthesis of these blocks, which were carried out with high regio- and/or stereoselectivity. Given the high total yield for such a complex synthesis, this work offers insight into the development of efficient synthetic strategies for complex polysaccharides." ChemistryViews
 
This level of complexity DOES NOT arise in nature on it's own.....