NPLK14032U Advanced Carbohydrate Technologies

Volume 2020/2021
Education

MSc Programme in Biotechnology

Content

This course will provide a comprehensive understanding of plant carbohydrates and will use an integrated series of lectures and practical/theoritical exercises to cover fundamental carbohydrate biology and the associated technology. This is followed by presentation of more applied themes by academic and industrial researches. The key lectures will be provided by members the three departments involved, but an important feature of the course will be the involvement of invited external speakers. Students will have opportunities to get hands-on practical experience with state–of-the-art techniques for glycan analysis including carbohydrate microarrays.

Carbohydrates have a large impact on plant development and thereby on cereal based foods or food ingredients that constitutes the major part of the human diet. Carbohydrates are bioengineered to make biofuel and bioenergy more efficient. Further carbohydrates are functionalised in plants and with enzyme processing to generate new functions, health-associated ones, and intelligent and advanced biomaterials.

In the course the theory will be presented, followed by excercises in the technologies described. The course will deal with polysaccharides as they occur in plants, especially important food crops and will cover biosynthesis, diversity, evolution and structure. The theory will be backed up by presentation of the analytical techniques for polysaccharide analysis with a particular emphasis on relating structure to function and the effects of enzymatic and chemical modifications. Also included will be lectures with focus on the applications of plant polysaccharides. This will ex. include plant fibres and health, advanced functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals and therapeutics, novel bio-materials and the production of plant polysaccharides within a bio-refinery context.

Key topics covered:  e.g. functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals, excipients (medical applications), biocomposites, industrial production of fibres from plants, monoclonal antibody production; biosynthesis of plant carbohydrate, biofuel enzyme discovery, rational energy crop design, starch, pectin, plant cell wall, spectroscopic analysis.

The newest examples of techniques will be presented e.g. carbohydrate microarrays, high-throughput antibody screening; hydrocolloid rheology (structure function relationships); high-throughput enzyme screening; immuno-fluoresence microscopy;  bioinformatics relating to the carbohydrate enzyme database (CAZY), viscometric measurements, molecular modeling.


Theory. Carbohydrates in planta
• The biological sources of plant carbohydrates
• Plant cell walls
• Starch
• Carbohydrate biosynthesis
• Carbohydrate evolution and diversity

Technology. Carbohydrate structure, analysis and functionality
• Relating carbohydrate structure and function
• Carbohydrate active enzymes
• Carbohydrate microarrays
• Glycan recognition, monoclonal antibodies and carbohydrate binding modules
• Carbohydrate molecular modelling
• Glycomics, data mining, multivariate data analysis
• Near infra red, infra red-, and Raman spectroscopy
• Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy

Applied. Industrial production of plant carbohydrates and the impact on human health & nutrition
• Functional food ingredients introduction
• Pectins, carrageenans and other hydrocolloids
• Glucans and arabinoxylans
• Fibre function, resistant starch and health
• Pectin and cancer
• Prebiotics

Learning Outcome

The primary outcomes will be a sound knowledge of the biology and utilization of plant carbohydrates. After completing the course, students should be able to:

Knowledge
• Describe the processes of carbohydrate biosynthesis, occurrence and diversity in the plant kingdom.
• Demonstrate a practical knowledge of cutting-edge techniques for carbohydrate analysis, including the construction and use of carbohydrate microarrays for high throughput screening.
• Describe the activities and importance of industries based on plant carbohydrates.
• Demonstrate a detailed understanding of the use of plant carbohydrates as functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals, therapeutics and as novel bio materials.
• Describe the health effects of plant fibres.

Skills
• Apply their knowledge to critically assess scientific literature.
• Use selected techniques for carbohydrate analysis.
• Apply their knowledge to evaluate the outcome of carbohydrate analysis.
• Describe how fundamental carbohydrate biology is related to downstream industrial uses.

Competences
• Work independently and with scientific literature.
• Prepare and present oral and written work
• Design experiments related to carbohydrate biology and applications

A mixture of original research papers, reviews articles and text book chapters. To be announced.

Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is recommended.
Lectures, theoretical and practical exercises. Report on the laboratory work. Poster on selected subject.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 30
  • Preparation
  • 141
  • Theory exercises
  • 4
  • Practical exercises
  • 30
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 min
Description of Examination: 20 minute oral exam within the theoretical and practical aspects of the course, with 20 minutes preparation time.
Exam registration requirements

An approved written report on the practical exercises

Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
One internal examiner
Re-exam

if the requirements have not been fulfilled prior to the ordinary exam the written report must be handed in no later than 2 weeks before the re-exam. The report has to be approved.

Criteria for exam assesment

Assement is based on the theory and lab exercises as stated in the learning outcome.