Glycomics: From glycobiology to diagnostics and therapeutics.

The Royal Society of Chemistry Biotechnology Group and Chemical Biology Forum held a two-day symposium on December 12-13, 2005, in London. The meeting was designed to give an overview of the exciting new technologies being applied to study complex carbohydrates from their sequence analysis, characterization and function through to the development of novel pharmacological approaches to diagnose and alleviate polysaccharide-mediated diseases. The meeting, which also included a poster session, highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of the research and development and the exciting advances being made in this field.