MITRE Releases Free Database to Help Scientists Fight Disease

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Bedford, Massachusetts, February 8, 2005 — The MITRE Corporation has released SugarBindDB™, a free database of pathogens that attach to sugars. SugarBindDB™ gives scientists a tool that can help explain why human and animal host tissues that have certain sugars on their surfaces are prone to infection by particular strains of bacteria.

The database, initially developed by MITRE to facilitate research on biocapture films, describes carbohydrate sequences that bind to proteins, called lectins, on the surfaces of bacterial cells, toxins, and viruses. It is a valuable tool for scientists who study infectious diseases on the molecular scale.

The data were compiled through an exhaustive search of literature that was published over the past 30 years by:

• Epidemiologists, who study the frequency and distribution of diseases in human populations
• Medical histologists, who specialize in the microscopic study of animal tissues
• Microbiologists, who study micro-organisms that are too small to be seen with the naked eye
• Glycobiologists, who analyze and develop carbohydrates

Approximately 80 scientific journals, lectures, and letters are listed to date. MITRE hopes that this unique resource will facilitate similar studies and will be sustained as a living reference through the submission of new entries as more is learned about the glycobiology of disease. SugarBindDB™ is available online at http://sugarbinddb.mitre.org.

MITRE (www.mitre.org) is a not-for-profit national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, with principal locations in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia.

SugarBindDB™ and SugarBind™ are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation.

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