Elucidating the roles of carbohydrates and cell-associated polysaccharides in biology are key challenges for chemical biologists. Progress has been made toward this end with the use of synthetic oligosaccharides in studying glycochemistry and glycobiology in human health and disease. Such contributions to carbohydrate biochemistry are associated with the immune system, antimicrobials, vaccines, cancer therapeutics, carbohydrate-binding proteins, and novel drug delivery systems. Sigma-Aldrich offers an extensive array of monosaccharides for the generation of carbohydrate derivatives to meet your various synthetic needs: solution phase, automated solid-phase or chemoenzymatic methods.
