Not only are glycan-mediated binding processes in cells and organisms essential for a wide range of physiological processes, but they are also implicated in various pathological processes. As a result, elucidation of glycan-associated biomolecular interactions and their consequences is of great importance in basic biological research and biomedical applications. In 2002, we and others were the first to utilize glycan microarrays in efforts aimed at the rapid analysis of glycan-associated recognition events. Because they contain a number of glycans immobilized in a dense and orderly manner on a solid surface, glycan microarrays enable multiple parallel analyses of glycan–protein binding events while utilizing only small amounts of glycan samples. Therefore, this microarray technology has become a leading edge tool in studies aimed at elucidating roles played by glycans and glycan binding proteins in biological systems. In this Account, we summarize our efforts on the construction of glycan microarrays and their applications in studies of glycan-associated interactions. Immobilization strategies of functionalized and unmodified glycans on derivatized glass surfaces are described. Although others have developed immobilization techniques, our efforts have focused on improving the efficiencies and operational simplicity of microarray construction. The microarray-based technology has been most extensively used for rapid analysis of the glycan binding properties of proteins. In addition, glycan microarrays have been employed to determine glycan–protein interactions quantitatively, detect pathogens, and rapidly assess substrate specificities of carbohydrate-processing enzymes. More recently, the microarrays have been employed to identify functional glycans that elicit cell surface lectin-mediated cellular responses. Owing to these efforts, it is now possible to use glycan microarrays to expand the understanding of roles played by glycans and glycan binding proteins in biological systems.

中文翻译：

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从构造到应用的聚糖微阵列故事

聚糖介导的细胞和生物体内的结合过程不仅对于广泛的生理过程是必不可少的，而且它们还牵涉到各种病理过程中。结果，阐明与聚糖相关的生物分子相互作用及其后果在基础生物学研究和生物医学应用中非常重要。在2002年，我们和其他公司率先使用聚糖微阵列，旨在快速分析与聚糖相关的识别事件。由于它们包含大量以致密有序的方式固定在固体表面上的聚糖，因此，聚糖微阵列可在仅使用少量聚糖样品的情况下，对糖蛋白结合事件进行多个平行分析。所以，这项微阵列技术已成为旨在阐明聚糖和聚糖结合蛋白在生物系统中所起作用的研究中的领先工具。在此报告中，我们总结了在糖链微阵列的构建上的努力及其在糖链相关相互作用研究中的应用。描述了官能化和未修饰的聚糖在衍生化玻璃表面上的固定策略。尽管其他人已经开发了固定技术，但是我们的努力集中在提高微阵列构建的效率和操作简便性上。基于微阵列的技术已被最广泛地用于蛋白质的聚糖结合特性的快速分析。此外，聚糖微阵列已用于定量确定聚糖与蛋白质的相互作用，检测病原体，并快速评估碳水化合物加工酶的底物特异性。最近，微阵列已用于鉴定引发细胞表面凝集素介导的细胞反应的功能性聚糖。由于这些努力，现在有可能使用聚糖微阵列来扩展对聚糖和聚糖结合蛋白在生物系统中所起的作用的理解。