Tools for mammalian glycoscience research

Cellular carbohydrates or glycans are critical mediators of biological function. Their remarkably diverse structures and varied activities present exciting opportunities for understanding many areas of biology. In this primer, we discuss key methods and recent breakthrough technologies for identifying, monitoring, and manipulating glycans in mammalian systems. Glycans are complex, ubiquitous, and heterogeneous and play important roles in fundamental processes broadly across biology. Griffin and Hsieh-Wilson provide a critical overview and discuss current methods to identify, characterize, monitor, and modulate mammalian glycans, exploring how technological advances have overcome the difficulties of glycan complexity and heterogeneity to provide a clearer picture of central features that underlie glycan activity.