Trends in Carbohydrate Chemistry

In recent years, considerable progress has been made in the synthesis of glycosides. The challenging chemistry, due to its versatility, glycosides play a key role in developing novel materials and biological molecules. The interactions of cell surface carbohydrates, as well as soluble glycoconjugates with their receptor proteins, rule fundamental processes in cell biology. One of the supramolecular principles underlying and regulating carbohydrate recognition is multivalency. Many multivalent glycoconjugates have therefore been synthesized to study multivalency effects operative in glycobiology.