Imaging cell surface glycans with bioorthogonal chemical reporters

The visualization of biomolecules as they function in living systems is important for understanding complex biological processes. Here, we applied the bioorthogonal chemical reporter technique to image cell surface glycans using multiple metabolic labels. We introduced two different chemical reporters into sialic acid and N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) residues and then simultaneously imaged their associated cell surface glycans with fluorescent probes.