text: The binding of glycan-binding proteins (GBPs) to glycans could be modeled with simple equilibrium. Denoting glycans as  and proteins as :
  With an associated equilibrium constant of
  Which is rearranged to give dissociation constant  following biochemical conventions:
  Given that many GBPs exhibit multivalency, this model may be expanded to account for multiple equilibria:
  Denoting cumulative equilibrium of binding with  ligands as
  With corresponding equilibrium constant:
  And writing material balance for protein ( denotes the total concentration of protein):
  Expressing the terms through an equilibrium constant, a final result is found:
  The concentration of free protein is, thus:
  If , i.e. there is only one carbohydrate receptor domain, the equation reduces to
  With increasing  the concentration of free protein decreases; hence, the apparent  decreases too.