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영어

For these 7 years, we have been developing new technologies for Glycomics with the sponsorship of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). We discovered new glyco-genes and constructed human glyco-gene library consisting of 184 genes. Knowledge of the substrate specificities of these gene products allowed us to better understand the molecular basis of human glycosylation. Taking full advantage of our glyco-gene library, we developed a glycan library that was then used as standards to develop instruments for glycan structural analysis, such as mass spectrometer-based glycan sequencer and lectin microarray-based glycan profiler. Association of aberrant glycosylation with cancer has long been recognized. However, much of the discovery still depends on serendipity, and biological meanings of these cancer-related glycosylation patterns are only gradually uncovered. In 2006, we launched a new project termed Medical Glycomics (MG) project. Our aims in the project are two-folds: (1) development of discovery systems for cancer-related glyco -biomarkers, and (2) functional analysis of the cancer-associated glycosylation. We present many candidates for cancer-glyco-biomarker which would be useful for diagnosis.