The Sugar Code: Fundamentals of Glycosciences

“The view that glycans are more complex and difficult to study than proteins and nucleic acids is no longer true. ‘The Sugar Code’ teaches us they are sweet and easy.”

Rocco Ungaro – University of Parma, Italy.

Glycans are one of the three major classes of biological macromolecules which encode the information essential for life, yet because of their complex structure and their diversity of functions glycosciences have been widely neglected in university courses. In this pioneering new textbook, The Sugar Code: Fundamentals of Glycosciences, editor Hans-Joachim Gabius and his team offer an engaging introduction to ‘the third alphabet of life’.

The book is strategically structured to deliver the best possible introduction to glycosciences guiding from the basics of the sugar alphabet and pertinent aspects of chemical/natural glycosylation to functional carbohydrate recognition (sugar code), with an eye on emerging medical relevance.

This title offers a uniquely multinational approach by bringing together a team of contributors from the forefront of science to cover the significant topics of the field, each explained in an engaging and thought provoking style with frequent cross-references to ensure a coherent overview. This structure makes the title ideal for designing a lecture series or as a stand-alone guide for independent study.

Glycobiology is a rapidly growing field that affects every known biological organism from fungi and plants to vertebrates, invertebrates and infectious viruses and bacteria. This diversity is reflected in the inter-disciplinary nature of the text, drawing together experts from across the scientific spectrum, from chemistry and biochemistry/cell biology to pharmacy and molecular medicine.

The chapters are consistently structured around the sugar code concept, revealing the molecular relations between different biological phenomenon. Each chapter shares the same interdisciplinary approach making the information readily digestible, with story-telling info boxes adding an entertaining touch.

Early chapters focus on the chemical basis of the sugar code and the process of glycosylation, the complex and biologically unique glycan assembly process.  The emphasis is then placed on the diverse biological functions that glycans perform, the interactions between molecules and the relation to diseases with implications for new routes of drug design

This engaging title not only serves as an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of Glycosciences, but is also a valuable resource for researchers across the scientific spectrum, with specific relevance for different specialities in chemistry, such as organic, physical, computational, inorganic, as well as the disciplines of cell biology, pharmacy, molecular biology, biomedicine and clinical disciplines such as medical microbiology or hematology.