Abstract

Glycosylation is a common and complex post-translational modification that is orchestrated in all mammalian cells. Glycan structures thus formed either absolutely control or fine-tune various biological processes. These include the half-life of biologics in circulation, the rates of leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion interaction during inflammation, tumorigenesis and the kinetics of cancer metastasis. The pattern of glycans formed on individual cells during normal health and disease depends on a family of ~350 genes that are together called the “glycogenes.” The enzymes produced by these glycogenes either add saccharides, clip-off terminal sugar units, or participate in the metabolic synthesis of building blocks required for glycosylation reactions. My presentation will describe novel molecular tools and complementary computational strategies to advance the study of glycosylation from a systems perspective. These represent key enabling technologies that provide new insight into the progress of diverse human diseases: cancer biology, human inflammatory disease, and viral infection mediated by SARS-CoV-2. The emerging knowledge suggests potential diagnostic strategies and therapeutic avenues to combat these ailments.