The body relies on thousands of sugar–protein complexes to stay healthy
Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 08:02
in Biology & Nature
Over two weeks in 2004, Song Zhiwei witnessed the slow death of a colony of cells. Song, a bioengineer at the A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), had bathed a plate of Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) with lectin, a toxic protein derived from plants. He then observed the millions of cells shrink to a dozen survivors. They looked average, but Song knew they had superpowers. The secret was hidden in the sweetening.