Glycomics: Building Upon Proteomics to Advance Glycosciences

Glycans are among the building blocks of the four major biomolecules of life—carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins. Intriguingly, the other three major biomolecules of life either contain (ribo- or deoxyribonucleic acids) or can be modified with (glycolipids and glycoproteins) carbohydrates. To quote one of the leaders in the field of glycobiology, Ajit Varki of the University of California at San Diego, “Despite more than 3 billion years since the origin of life on earth, the powerful forces of biological evolution seem to have failed to generate any living cell that is devoid of a dense and complex array of cell surface glycans” (1).