Transforming Glycoscience A Roadmap for the Future (2012) / Chapter Skim
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WHY GLYCOSCIENCE? Glycans are one of the four fundamental classes of macromolecules that comprise living systems, along with nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, and are made up of individual sugar units linked to one another in a multitude of ways.
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The difference between glycan molecules added by humans when they naturally produce the protein erythropoietin, which affects red blood cell production, and glycan molecules present when this protein drug is produced commercially in cell culture, serves as the basis for antidoping tests in athletes. They are also central components of plant cell walls, which enable plants to grow upright and to resist degradation from the environment and from microbes.
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The conversion of biomass into novel starting materials can have implications for both materials scientists working to develop new plastics based on renewable resources or synthetic chemists working to synthesize novel drug targets. This report provides a holistic vision for glycoscience by suggesting a research roadmap for the scientific community that, while undoubtedly challenging, may ultimately help democratize the field and help realize the broad benefits from this important area.
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But current knowledge now makes it possible to integrate glycoscience broadly into the fields of health, energy, and materials science, and the set of available tools, while not perfect, provides a base to enable further development and discovery. A CENTRAL FIELD WITH LINKS TO MANY DISCIPLINES Glycoscience is a highly interdisciplinary field that aims to better understand the structures and functions of glycans and how they can be used.
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As society explores sources of energy that can provide alternatives to fossil fuels, harnessing the energy stored in these plant carbohydrates is one attractive option. Effectively converting plant glycans into liquid biofuels requires breaking down the structures of plant cell walls in order to release the constituent carbohydrate molecules for subsequent processing.
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For example, they can serve as carriers to encapsulate and deliver drugs and as scaffolds for tissue engineering, and they can be used in flexible coatings and films. A TOOLKIT THAT INCLUDES MANY COMPONENTS BUT THAT ALSO HAS KEY GAPS Because glycans are made of different types of individual sugar units linked in multiple ways, large numbers of different glycan structures can be created from the same constituent carbohydrate molecules.
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· Understanding cell wall structure and biosynthesis and overcom ing the recalcitrance of plant cell walls to conversion into feed stocks that can be transformed into liquid fuels and other energy sources will be important to achieving a sustainable energy revo lution. Glycoscience research will be necessary to advance this area.
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Based on the above, the committee makes the following findings regarding the toolkit needed to advance glycoscience: · Scientists and engineers need access to a broad array of chemi cally well-defined glycans. · Over the past 30 years, tremendous advances have been made in chemical and enzymatic synthesis of glycans, but these meth ods remain relegated to specialized laboratories capable of pro ducing only small quantities of a given glycan.
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Within 10 years, have synthetic tools to be able to synthesize uniform batches, in milligram quantities, of all linear and branched glycans that will enable glycan arrays for identifying protein binding epitopes, provide standards for analytical methods development, and enable improved polysaccharide materials engineering and systematic studies for all fields to be conducted. This includes methods for synthesis of structures with isotopic enrichment of specific desired atoms that may be needed for a wide variety of studies.
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Within 10 years, develop methods for creating specific inhibitors to any human, plant, or microbial glycosyltransferase suitable for in vitro and in vivo studies in order to perturb the biology mediated by these enzymes. Within 15 years, develop imaging methods for studying glycan structure, localization, and metabolism in both living and non-living systems.
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Within 5 years, employ an active curation system to automatically validate glycan structures deposited into a database so that journals can provide authors with an easily accessible interface for submitting new glycan structures to the database. To achieve the roadmap goals articulated in its recommendations, the committee notes that it will be of critical importance for the field to reach agreement on the standards of evidence and the nature of the assumptions that will be used to annotate and validate glycan structures within the next 2 to 3 years.
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From page 12... ...
Competency in glycoscience could also be included in all standardized testing wherever relevant (for example, as part of the SAT and GRE Subject Tests, the MCAT, and Medical Board Exams)
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