Proteins and sugars interact and play essential roles in information processing between cells. There is a lot we do not know about the processes they control, and how they perform their functions. Glycans have roles in diabetes, alzheimer and cancer all important human diseases for which we do not have effective cures and therapies. There is a pressing need for more computational research in glycobiology that can address these gaps.
Sugars involved in information processing are found in solution or attached to proteins or lipids, forming various types of glyconjugates. The sugar code is extremely large, but when combined with proteins and lipids for localization, the encoding possibilities are virtually limitless.