To answer this question one should know the different and important functions of glycans. The following are some of those functions:
*Glycoproteins and Glycolipids found on the cell surface play a critical role in bacterial and viral recognition.
*They are involved in cellular signaling pathways and modulate cell function.
*They are important in innate immunity.
*They determine cancer development.
*They orchestrate the cellular fate, inhibit proliferation, regulate circulation and invasion.
*They affect the stability and folding of proteins.
*They affect the pathway and fate of glycoproteins.
*There are many glycan-specific diseases, often hereditary diseases.
There are important medical applications of aspects of glycomics:
*Lectins fractionate cells to avoid graft-versus-host disease in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
*Activation and expansion of cytolytic CD8 T cells in cancer treatment.
Glycomics is particularly important in microbiology because glycans play diverse roles in bacterial physiology. Research in bacterial glycomics could lead to the development of:
* novel drugs
* bioactive glycans
* glycoconjugate vaccines