Glycobiology & Glycochemistry

Synthesis and Biological Role of Glycans

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As with other major classes of macromolecules, the biological roles of glycans span the spectrum from those that appear to be relatively subtle, to those that are crucial for the development, growth, functioning, or survival of the organism that synthesizes them. The biological roles of glycans can be divided into two broad categories: (1) the structural and modulatory properties of glycans and (2) the specific recognition of glycans by other molecules most commonly, glycan-binding proteins (GBPs). The biological consequences of altering glycosylation in various systems seem to be highly variable and unpredictable. A given glycan can have different roles in different tissues or at different times in development (organism-intrinsic functions) or in different environmental contexts (organism-extrinsic functions). Approaches taken to understand the biological roles of glycans include the prevention of initial glycosylation, prevention of glycan chain elongation, alteration of glycan processing, enzymatic or chemical deglycosylation of completed chains, genetic elimination of glycosylation sites, and the study of naturally occurring genetic variants and mutants in glycosylation. 

Relevant Conferences:Glycobiology Conferences | Biochemistry Conferences

6th International Conference on Bioinformatics, March 29-30, 2016 Valencia, Spain; International Conference on Structural Biology, June 23-24, 2016 New Orleans, USA; World Congress on Amino Acids and Proteins, December 08-09, 2016 Baltimore, USA; International Conference on Nucleic Acids, August 04-06, 2016 Seattle, USA 7th International Conference and Expo on Proteomics, October 24-26, 2016 Rome, Italy; International Conference on Obesity & Chronic Diseases, July 25-27, 2016 Las Vegas USA; International Conference on New Therapeutics for Diabetes and Obesity, April 17-20, 2016 La Jolla, USA; Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry, January 10-16, 2016 Tucson, USA; Euro Fed Lipid Congress, September 18-21, 2016 Gent, Belgium; Conference on Obesity and Adipose Tissue Biology, February 15-19, 2016 Banff, Canada