A team around Yasuhiro KAJIHARA of Osaka University has coupled six synthetic glycopeptides with different glycosylation patterns and arrived at five functional and correctly folded EPO glycoforms. Experiments on in vivo erythropoiesis in mice showed that biological activity is different in all glycoforms, providing information about the most important structural features, thus paving the way for new synthetic biologics.

Masumi MURAKAMI et al., Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500678