Working group report: the roles of glycans in hemostasis, inflammation and vascular biology

The first major collaborative effort on glycomics funded by the US National Institutes of Health was the Consortium for Functional Glycomics, begun in 2001. The focus of the consortium, which was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Science (NIGMS), includes cataloging structures of glycans in selected cell types and organs using mass spectrometry, creating and characterizing the phenotypes of mice engineered with deficiencies in glyco-related genes, and creating specialized microarrays to study gene expression and glycan binding specificity. New approaches will be needed to capitalize on this and other emerging glycomics knowledge to develop new diagnostics and treatments. With this in mind, the Division of Blood Diseases and resources of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened a working group of scientific investigators on February 25–26, 2008, in Bethesda, MD, to identify scientific opportunities and priorities emerging from the recent explosion of technological and biological advances in the glycosciences. Aligned with the NHLBI Strategic Plan Goals (http://apps.nhlbi.nih.gov/strategicplan/), the focus of this group was on “The Roles of Glycans in Hemostasis, Inflammation, and Vascular Biology.” Dr. Susan Shurin, Deputy Director, NHLBI, in her welcome message to the group noted that the full potential of the genomic and proteomic tools and knowledge bases recently generated with NHLBI funding will not be realized without an equally strong emphasis on glycomics. The working group was charged to identify key research areas as well as to prioritize the most fruitful areas for basic, preclinical, and clinical research related to heart, lung, and blood diseases. The meeting was well attended by NHLBI program officials in addition to intramural scientists from NHLBI and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Scientific review officers from the Center for Scientific Review and extramural program officials from NCI, NIGMS, and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) also attended.