Chemical glycobiology

Elisa Fadda*1, Rachel Hevey*2, Benjamin Schumann*3,4 and Ulrika Westerlind*5

Editorial Open Access

Address: Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 8–9.

1School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, https://doi.org/10.3762/bjoc.21.2
Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom, 2Department of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Received: 12 November 2024
Switzerland, 3Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Accepted: 29 November 2024
London W12 0BZ, United Kingdom, 4Chemical Glycobiology Published: 03 January 2025
Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, United
Kingdom and 5Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, 90736 This article is part of the thematic issue "Chemical glycobiology".
Umeå, Sweden
Guest Editors: E. Fadda, R. Hevey and B. Schumann; Associate Editor:
Email: U. Westerlind
Elisa Fadda* - [email protected];
Rachel Hevey* - [email protected]; © 2025 Fadda et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut.
Benjamin Schumann* - [email protected]; License and terms: see end of document.
Ulrika Westerlind* - [email protected]

* Corresponding author

As glycoscientists, we are standing on the shoulders of giants. same manner as nucleic acids can be mutated. Methods in mo-
Research on carbohydrates is as old as on any other biomole- lecular biology are facile and quantitative. But they do not tell
cule, dating back to the time of Emil Fischer and the elucida- us the function of a particular glycoform on a specific glyco-
tion of monosaccharide structures [1]. Later, foundational protein. To put glycans on the map, chemists needed to be
contributions came in the form of the first glycoconjugate inventive.
vaccines [2,3], the elucidation of the blood group system [4],
and many others. Among these, we dare to include the DNA At the time of writing this Editorial article, we are all early- and
double helix, featuring deoxyribose as a key structural element mid-career investigators who have learned from the best. We
of its twisting ladder [5]. A century of innovation, some of the look in awe at the achievements in the field to date, some of
most prestigious awards and highest honours later, one aspect is those appearing in the previous thematic issues “GlycoBioinfor-
immediately clear: chemistry and glycobiology are intricately matics” [6] and “Synthesis in the glycosciences” I and II [7,8].
intertwined. This is certainly by choice, but also by necessity. It We look ahead, asking the question how we can implement new
is difficult to convey to non-glycoscientists how we still chemistry, new molecules, and new methods to make the glyco-
struggle with challenges that have been solved years or decades sciences even more palatable to generalists. And we see a field
ago for proteins and nucleic acids. When molecular cloning and that innovates.
recombinant protein production became routine, these technolo-
gies were not applicable to glycans. Today, the most amazing This thematic issue seeks to highlight the amazing breadth of
tools in genome engineering are used to great effect to disrupt contemporary chemical glycobiology. Dal Colle et al. investi-
or alter the glycan biosynthetic machinery, but they still cannot gate the determinants that influence the oligosaccharide yield in
be used to, for instance, mutate one glycan into another in the automated glycan assembly [9]. Target-directed synthetic strate-

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 Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 8–9.

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A time that sees great opportunities in computational biology 9. Dal Colle, M. C. S.; Ricardo, M. G.; Hribernik, N.; Danglad-Flores, J.;
also breeds innovative applications in the glycosciences. A key Seeberger, P. H.; Delbianco, M. Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19,
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on computational methods that underlie modern glycobioinfor- doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.22
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an important aspect of contemporary structural biology, and Le Bideau, F.; Laurent, G.; Messaoudi, S.; Imberty, A.; Xie, J.
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We anticipate that this diverse collection of reports across the
2084–2107. doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.180
entire spectrum of the chemical sciences cements the readers’ 16. Dialpuri, J. S.; Bagdonas, H.; Schofield, L. C.; Pham, P. T.; Holland, L.;
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doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.134
Elisa Fadda, Rachel Hevey, Benjamin Schumann and Ulrika
Westerlind

Southampton, Basel, London, Umeå, November 2024 License and Terms

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References obtain permission from the license holder to reuse the
1. Fischer, E. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1891, 24, 1836–1845.
material.
doi:10.1002/cber.189102401311
2. Goebel, W. F.; Avery, O. T. J. Exp. Med. 1929, 50, 521–531.
doi:10.1084/jem.50.4.521 The definitive version of this article is the electronic one
3. Avery, O. T.; Goebel, W. F. J. Exp. Med. 1929, 50, 533–550. which can be found at:
doi:10.1084/jem.50.4.533 https://doi.org/10.3762/bjoc.21.2

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