Synthesis and Biological Applications of Glycoconjugates

Dear Colleagues,

Glycans are parts of glycoconjugates (glycoproteins, glycolipids, proteoglycans) and are involved in numerous biological recognition events. Glycans are considered as encoding molecules. Maintaining, for example, cellular crosstalk on a molecular level is directly related to the vast chemical diversity of glycan structures. Glycan assembly by chemical and/or enzymatic synthesis is therefore challenging. Novel and efficient synthetic procedures for glycan-based products need to be developed and optimized. Especially, multi-enzyme cascade reactions are of great interest for the production of glycans in larger scale. Protein engineering of enzymes leads to tailored biocatalysts with favorable and novel properties. Most importantly, the combination of chemo- and biocatalysis will expand the scope of novel routes for the synthesis of glycoconjugates. In this way, complex glycans and neo-glycoconjugates will be accessible for their application.

Decoding of glycan information by carbohydrate recognizing molecules (lectins, antibodies, aptamers) is closely related to their multivalent glycan presentation on surface scaffolds, the glyco-biointerface. Monitoring the read-out of binding events can then efficiently be translated in diagnostic and therapeutic biomedical applications.

With this little overview, I cordially invite you to contribute and share your recent research results in this Special Issue on the synthesis and biological applications of glycoconjugates.

Prof. Dr. Lothar Elling
Guest Editor

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• glycoproteins
• glycolipids
• proteoglycans
• biocatalysis
• cascade reactions
• chemo-enzymatic synthesis
• lectins
• biomaterials
• glycopolymers
• biosensors

• Synthesis and Biological Applications of Glycoconjugates Ⅱ in Molecules (6 articles)
• Synthesis and Biological Applications of Glycoconjugates Ⅲ in Molecules (2 articles)