Recent advances in carbohydrate microarrays

Carbohydrate microarrays have become a powerful tool to elucidate the biological role of these important biomolecules. This minireview focuses on the most recent advances involving carbohydrate microarrays, including the use of sugar arrays to study carbohydrate-cell interactions and to detect pathogens. Other important developments are novel immobilization strategies to covalently attach unmodified carbohydrates and the application of this robotic technology to the printing of medium-size (more than 200 compounds) glycan libraries using reproducible amide bond formation and standard DNA array protocols. Recent advances in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, such as the development of the automated solid-phase oligosaccharide synthesizer, will increase the complexity and utility of carbohydrate microarrays. Carbohydrate arrays are beginning to have a major impact in the field of glycomics, aiding the discovery of new roles for carbohydrates in cell biology.