Author Description

The understanding of the structure, recognition, and function of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates remains crucial in diverse areas at the interface of biology, chemistry and biotechnology and is driving innovation in biomedical and material sciences. This new volume contains critical reviews covering the current state-of-the-art and scientific advances in carbohydrate research and demonstrates cross-disciplinary areas within the field of glycosciences. Amongst the topics covered in Volume 47 are reviews focusing on the role of glycans in mechanisms of disease, highlighting the perspectives and challenges in diagnosis and their therapeutic potential as immune-checkpoints in cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity, and also evidencing a role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease. This volume also covers current knowledge on glycan biosynthesis at the molecular level to understand and exploit structural features in different biological settings: tumour-associated O-glycans in cancer, mycobacterial polysaccharides in infection and peptidoglycan in biofilm formation. Sustainable synthesis from biomass-derived carbohydrates is also reviewed in Volume 47, from a perspective of renewable resources, highlighting selected examples of the most relevant value-added compounds. Finally, the volume also gathers reviews on technology-driven research highlighting emergent chemical and glycoengineering approaches for accessing the cancer glycoproteome and lectin-based tools for targeting disease biomarkers.