Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Background and current statusEvery living cell in nature that has emerged from more than 3 billion years of biological evolution is composed of nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, metabolites, and glycans, and each of these com-ponents remains essential to all life forms.Until the 1970s, the study of glycans was thus an integral part of the exploration of all biological systems, generating major advances in fields as diverse as hematology, microbiology, metabolism, and material sciences.With the rapid advent of powerful insights and tools, the study of nucleic acids and proteins came to dominate the molecular biology revolution of subsequent decades.While similar revolutions in the biological exploration of lipids and metabolites have now followed, the study of glycans has been left far behind.The reasons for this omission are many, but can be broadly ascribed to the far greater complexity and diversity of this class of molecules and the related lack of comparable tools for their exploration.In analogy to the situation in cosmology, the "standard model" for approaching biological systems now largely excludes glycans, which have effectively become the "dark matter" of the biological universe: criti-This position statement originated from a working group meeting convened on April 15, 2015, by the NHLBI and incorporates follow-up contributions by the participants as well as other thought leaders subsequently consulted, who together represent research fields relevant to all branches of the NIH.The group was deliberately composed not only of individuals with a current research emphasis in the glycosciences, but also of many experts from other fields, who evinced a strong interest in being involved in the discussions.The original goal was to discuss the value of creating centers of excellence for training the next generation of biomedical investigators in the glycosciences.A broader theme that emerged was the urgent need to bring the glycosciences back into the mainstream of biology by integrating relevant education into the curricula of medical, graduate, and postgraduate training programs, thus generating a critical sustainable workforce that can advance the much-needed translation of glycosciences into a more complete understanding of biology and the enhanced practice of medicine.
DOI: 10.1172/jci85905
Authors: Peter Agre, Carolyn Bertozzi, Mina Bissell, Kevin P. Campbell, Richard D. Cummings, Umesh R. Desai, Mary Estes, Terence Flotte, Guy Fogleman, Fred Gage, David Ginsburg, Jeffrey I. Gordon, Gerald Hart, Vincent Hascall, Laura Kiessling, Stuart Kornfeld, John Lowe, John Magnani, Lara K. Mahal, Ruslan Medzhitov, Richard J. Roberts, Robert Sackstein, Rita Sarkar, Ronald Schnaar, Nancy Schwartz, Ajit Varki, David Walt, Irving Weissman
Institutions: Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Iowa, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, University of Michigan, Washington University in St. Louis, Cleveland Clinic, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Genentech, GlycoMimetics (United States), New York University, Yale University, New England Biolabs (United States), Brigham and Women's Hospital, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, University of Chicago, University of California San Diego, Tufts University, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2268594207