Glycomics: Technologies Taming a Frontier Omics Field

摘要

It is a pleasure to welcome readers to this Special Issue dedicated to the field of glycomics. Given the essential role of glycans in defining phenotype an appreciation of glycomics is essential for developing a full understanding of complex biological systems. Importantly, recent technological and scientific advances, many of which are detailed in this issue, have dramatically advanced "glycomics" (Raman et al., 2005; Turnbull and Field, 2007) and increased our ability to ask sophisticated biological questions. Furthermore, translation of learnings from other omics areas, especially proteomics (through glycoproteomics) has enabled the field to progress rapidly. In our view, advancing omics, including glycomics, will promote increased understanding of biological phenomena and should enable multiple therapeutic and diagnostic applications, including biomarker discovery, target identification and definition, and even discovery of novel therapeutic modalities.