Creating a Synthetic Platform for Understanding and Exploiting Glycoconjugates

碳水化合物在生物学中的重要性的证据呈指数增长。与其他生物分子（脂质、蛋白质、核苷）不同，在用于理解和利用这种生物学的相应糖缀合物探针的构建中需要大量的专业知识：例如，迄今为止还没有用于构建所有糖苷键的自动寡糖合成仪。像六糖结构这样简单的东西的可能排列延伸到大于1.05 x 1012种可能的组合。这种复杂程度强调了糖缀合物的合成必须由功能设计指导，并且不能简单地通过随机合成所有可能的组合来实现。在糖科学领域存在着许多令人震惊和具有挑战性的高风险问题，该平台将使我们能够解决这些问题。风险很高，复杂性的挑战很大（部分原因是生物学中通常缺乏对糖缀合物合成的直接遗传控制），但潜在的回报是巨大的。

The evidence for the importance of carbohydrates in biology is increasing exponentially. Unlike other biomolecules (lipids, proteins, nucleosides) significant expertise is needed in the construction of corresponding glycoconjugate probes used to understand and exploit this biology: for example, no automated oligosaccharide synthesizer to date exists for the construction of all the glycoside linkages. The possible permutations for something as simple as the hexasaccharide structures stretch to greater than 1.05 x 1012 possible combinations. This level of complexity highlights that synthesis of glycoconjugates must be guided by functional design, and cannot simply be achieved through random synthesis of all possible combinations. There are a number of startling and challenging high-risk problems that exist in the field of glycoscience that the Platform would allow us to tackle. The risk is high, the challenges of complexity great (due, in part, to the typical lack of direct genetic control of glycoconjugate synthesis within biology) but the potential rewards are tremendous.