Glycans are information rich, structurally diverse biopolymers that play critical roles in normal human biology and virtually every disease process. While genomic and proteomic studies have advanced rapidly, our inability to synthesize and sequence glycans at will, along with a lack of high throughput tools to analyze function(s), and unified databases have hamstrung glycomics. NIH has made concerted investments over the past twenty years to establish the technological infrastructure necessary to decipher the structural and functional complexities of glycans. The first NIH supported glycomics effort, the Consortium for Functional Glycomics (2001-2011), championed chemoenzymatic methods for glycan synthesis, advanced glycan array and profiling technologies, and established integrated public databases for glycans. Subsequently, workshops were held (2007, 2011) to identify roadblocks to progress in the glycosciences, and FOAs/contract calls were issued for new chemical methods development (2009) and synthesis of defined glycan libraries (2012). To capitalize on chemoenzymatic approaches for the synthesis of multi-antennary glycans, a repository for glycan-related enzymes was established (2009) and later commercialized. Promising new results from initial glycomic studies coming from the CFG drew the attention of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, which convened a committee to “Assess the Importance and Impact of Glycomics and Glycosciences.” Its 2012 report “Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future” pointed out the need to make glycoscience accessible to non-specialists and laid out a 15 year roadmap for the field. In 2015 under the leadership of NIGMS and NIDCR, the NIH Common Fund Glycoscience Program was initiated to democratize glycoscience. It utilizes a three-pronged approach for the development of facile synthetic methods, tools, and informatics. To date, eighteen synthesis groups have been funded to develop new catalytic, synthetic, and automated methodologies for the preparation of glycans. Progress made by the three arms of this Common Fund Program will be discussed in the context of NIH's 20 year investment in this field.

Meeting the challenges of an omics era: Glycomics and the glycosciences from a program director’s perspective

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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