Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Glycomics and glycobiology -- Comment()
What are glycomics and glycobiology? This is a field where a lot is happening but the future is still unknown. On glycobiology there was a review in Science (in PDF format). And Wikipedia has a short definition for glycomics:

Glycomics is a discipline of applied biology that deals with the structure and function of oligosaccharides (chains of sugars). The term glycomics is derived from the chemical prefix for sweetness or a sugar, "glyco", and was formed to follow the naming convention established by genomics (which deals with genes) and proteomics (which deals with proteins).
This area of research has to deal with an inherent level of complexity not seen in other areas of applied biology. Whereas genes have four building blocks and proteins have 20, the saccharides have a multitude of building blocks. Advances in glycomics are anticipated to be driven by improvements in molecular sequencing and bioinformatics which is the computational organization and processing of sequence data.

The glycomics/glycobiology field is worth following. There are close connections to chemistry, bioinformatics, drug discovery, and medicine.

-- Comment()
Happy Darwin Day! "Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate humanity and the science in our lives. While you're celebrating you may want to see who has won awards in his name..." [MetaFilter]