Foreword

This book includes a timely collection of topics addressing important advances in glycotechnology that are being exploited in the development of glycotherapeutics.

This area is rooted in the rich history of the chemistry of carbohydrates that contributed to defining the structures of oligosaccharides and developed the complex synthesis of these exquisite molecules. In addressing the functions of these structures in animal cells glycobiologists, using the major advances in biochemistry and molecular biology developed in the last decades of the 20^th century, unraveled the complex process involved in the biosynthesis, assembly, and processing of glycoproteins, glycolipids and proteoglycans. One of the seminal observations that initiated the general area of glycobiology was Victor Ginsburg’s discovery in the early 1960’s that neuraminidase digestion of lymphocytes altered their normal trafficking pattern, which ultimately led to the discovery of the animal cell lectins, and we now know that the functions of mammalian cell glycans are somehow associated with either direct or indirect protein-glycan interactions making them ideal candidates for glycotherapeutic studies with many examples already available.

The obvious challenge now resides in the continued search for the roles of glycans in normal physiology and disease; and these advances a coming rapidly in the field we now refer to as Glycomics, which has recently been recognized as a strategic area for NIH Common Fund support. The future is indeed bright, and the opportunities are ripe for the investigators to exploit this rapidly expanding area for glycotherapy.