As model compounds for the biologically important heparan sulfate, eight systematically modified heparin derivatives were studied by synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD), which is sensitive to uronic acid confor- mation. Substitution pattern altered uronic acid conformation, even when structural changes were made in adjacent glucosamine residues (e.g. 6- O -desulfation) and did not involve a chromophore. SRCD spectra of these derivatives following conversion to the Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Mn2+, Cu2+ and Fe3+ cation forms revealed that almost all substitution/cation combinations resulted in unique spectra, showing that each was structurally distinct. The detailed effects that binding Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions had on a 2-de- O -sulfated derivative was also studied by NMR, revealing that subtle changes in conformation (by NOE) and flexibility (by T 2 measurements) resulted. Conversion to the K+ and Cu2+ ion forms also drastically modified biological activity, from inactive to active, in a cell-based assay of fibroblast growth factor-receptor (FGF2/FGFR1c) signalling and this effect was not reproduced by free cations. These observations could explain the often-contradictory data concerning structure–activity relationships for these derivatives in the literature and, furthermore, argue strongly against the established trend of considering sequence as a complete structural definition. It also provides additional means of modifying the activity of these polysaccharides and suggests a possible additional level of control in biological systems. There are also obvious potential applications for these findings in the biotechnology sphere.