Along with nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, carbohydrates stand as one of four main components of cellular architecture. However, glycobiology (or carbohydrate bioscience) is little understood by non-experts, partly because carbohydrates are a complex, diverse class of molecules structurally and functionally. In recent years, advances in computational analytics (glycomics) have allowed us to better interpret and realize the importance of glycobiology in human health and disease, and glycans and their associated processes have been shown to play a significant role across a variety of disease types. As the biomedical sciences continue to adopt multi-omic and precision medicine approaches, a greater understanding of glycobiology is essential for maintaining healthy physiology and advancing disease treatment.
Translational Glycobiology in Human Health and Disease offers a deep examination of glycobiology for experts and non-experts alike in areas ranging from the role of glycobiology in chronic and infectious diseases to advances in technologies for higher throughput analysis and diagnosis. While keeping human health in the forefront, this book integrates a thorough discussion of glycobiology fundamentals with its growing areas of application and societal impact. With emphasis throughout on the interdisciplinary nature of glycosciences, this book also features perspectives from the health, computational (glycoanalytics), materials, biopharmaceutical, and diagnostic sciences.
Disease and speciality areas addressed include gycoimmunology, neuroglycobiology, commensal glycobiology, gut health, regenerative medicine and glycobiology, glycobiology and cancer, congenital disorders of glycosylation, infectious disease glycobiology, and parasite glycobiology. Computational approaches discussed, supporting the advance of new research, include advanced glycoanalytics, glycomics microarrays, glycoengineering, and glycol systems biology. Additionally, authors consider impact areas for society and public health, such as glycobiology and entrepreneurship, policy and regulatory requirements for glycosylation, future research, and translation to new diagnostics and drug discovery.
Author Biography:
Dr. Michelle Kilcoyne is Lecturer in Glycosciences at the National University of Ireland Galway. Dr. Michelle Kilcoyne completed her PhD in analytical carbohydrate chemistry in the School of Chemistry at NUI Galway in 2004, specialising in structural analysis of bacterial polysaccharides. She then took up a postdoctoral position in Arizona State University where she further specialised in mass spectrometry and HPLC, as well as expanding her interests to mammalian glycosylation. She returned as a postdoctoral researcher to NUI Galway in 2007 working on industry-supported and European projects, developing high throughput platforms for carbohydrate profiling. In 2014 Dr. Kilcoyne was appointed Lecturer in Glycosciences, is currently a member of Discipline of Microbiology at NUI Galway and leads the Carbohydrate Signalling Group. She is the recipient of a Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund Fellowship for 2018. Her main interests are in glycoanalytics, novel glycomics platform development and carbohydrate-mediated host-microbe interactions. Prof. Lokesh Joshi is Director of the Advanced Glycoscience Research Cluster and leader of the Glycoscience Group at NUI Galway, a Co-Director of CÚRAM, a medical device centre, and the Vice-President for Research at NUI Galway. His principal focus of research is in understanding the roles of glycans and lectins in health and diseases and developing novel technologies for glycomics. Prof. Joshi has been involved in two spin out companies, Arizona Engineered Therapeutics (AzERx) and Aquila Biosciences. The NIH and VC sources funded AzERx to develop peptide-based therapeutics for vascular applications and AzERx was acquired by Orthologic (Now Capstone Therapeutics) in 2006. Aquila Bioscience is a healthcare company working on various projects funded by EI, EU, European Defence Agency and private industries. Prof. Joshi is an SFI-Stokes Professor of Glycosciences and the Irish representative on European Universities Association’s Research Programme Working group.
