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Appendix B
The Landscape of Current Research in
Glycoscience: Additional Information
As a starting point to inform its deliberations, the committee sought
to better understand the current landscape of major U.S. and international
glycoscience efforts. This appendix presents an overview of some of the
research, funding, and industry initiatives the committee identified dur-
ing its data-gathering process. It is not meant to be comprehensive but
rather to provide a baseline of current investments in the field, including
centers of research activity and funding, in this country and abroad. The
examples provided are not meant to imply endorsement by the committee
or the National Research Council (NRC).
B.1 AN OVERVIEW OF GLYCOSCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES
B.1.1 Federal Agency Interests in Glycoscience
Glycoscience research in the United States is conducted within and
supported by a number of federal departments and agencies, including
the National Institutes of Health (NIH; through multiple individual insti-
tutes), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST).
NIH is one of the principal U.S. funding agencies for glycoscience
research, reflecting the myriad ways in which carbohydrate glycans are
linked to physiology and disease. Despite broad interest in the field, only
167
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168 APPENDIX B
a relatively small percentage of the total NIH portfolio is devoted to spe-
cifically identified glycoscience awards. For example, "in an unofficial
search of applications submitted to NIH using an R mechanism for [2010],
107 had glycomic in its abstract/summary statement and 400 had glycan"
(McGowan and Bowman, 2010). A search of the NIHReporter system for
fiscal year 2011 research grants having the term "glycan" in their project
title or abstract produced 159 results (129 projects and 30 subprojects),
with total funding of approximately $59 million.1 The National Institute
of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) is a central contributor to many
NIH glycoscience efforts, although investments exist for other institutes,
such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
In addition to funding research individually, the institutes support
collaborative initiatives. A long-term glycoscience special-interest group
(GlycoSIG) brings together interested researchers from across NIH and
FDA. While not meant to be an exhaustive list, key glycoscience programs
within NIH include:
· support for the Consortium of Functional Glycomics (CFG),
described in more detail below, through a Glue Grant mechanism
that has now ended (NIGMS);
· continued support to enable researcher access to resources devel-
oped by the CFG through Legacy Community-Wide Scientific
Resources funding (NIGMS);
· the Alliance of Glycobiologists for Detection of Cancer and Can-
cer Risk, currently in its second phase of funding for 2012-2017
(NCI);
· support of glycomics laboratories through the Early Detection
Research Network (NCI);
· support of national centers for research resources (recently trans-
ferred to NIGMS) emphasizing glycoscience and glycomics;
· programs of excellence in glycoscience, supporting six awards
for 2011-2018 and including a requirement for both glycoscience
research and skills development components (NHLBI);
1 Including "Research Project Grants (both SBIR/STTR and non-SBIR/STTR)" and "Other
Research Related" but not including "Research Centers." The total funding of approximately
$59 million broken down by agency included approximately $12 million at NIGMS, $16
million at NHLBI, $11 million at NIAID, and $8 million at NCI, with other (multiple) insti-
tutes making up the remainder (www.projectreporter.nih.gov; search conducted on June 7,
2012). A similar search for fiscal year 2012 projects produced 84 results (68 projects and 16
subprojects) with total funding of approximately $25 million. It should be noted that fiscal
year 2012 was ongoing at the time of the search.
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APPENDIX B 169
· Functional Glycomics in HIV Vaccine Design, an RO1 program
anticipated to start in 2013 (NIAID); and
· SBIR contract mechanisms for such areas as production of specific
monoclonal antibodies or analytical technologies (various).
Glycoscience research is also relevant to the mandates of NSF direc-
torates and divisions, including biological sciences, chemistry, and mate-
rials research. Although NSF has not developed funding solicitations
specifically dedicated to glycoscience, it receives relevant proposals under
a range of programs. An approximate and unofficial portfolio estimate
indicates that approximately 5 percent of chemical synthesis submissions
address carbohydrate synthesis strategies, whereas approximately 5 to
10 percent of biomaterials submissions involve polysaccharides or sugars
in some fashion (personal communication from Kelsey Cook, Tingyu Li,
and David Berkowitz, NSF Division of Chemistry, and David Brant, NSF
Division of Materials Research, phone conversation, 11/18/2010).
FDA and NIST both maintain interests in the development of mea-
surement technologies and standards relevant to health care products and
therapeutics. Research conducted by these agencies includes efforts to bet-
ter understand physiological interactions and trafficking of glycosylated
protein therapeutics and carbohydrate-based vaccines, methods to moni-
tor glycosylation in cell cultures for biologics production, and character-
ization and quantification of glycans and glycoproteins. These agencies
are also interested in the creation of reference standards and materials,
such as standards for the interpretation of glycan mass spectral data.
Finally, DOE and USDA are engaged in glycoscience, particularly as
it relates to nonmammalian systems. Glycoscience efforts at DOE empha-
size areas related to biofuel and bioproduct development, such as cell wall
chemistry, synthesis, and deconstruction with a particular focus on plants
and on nonmedical aspects of microorganisms. Three bioenergy research
centers are supported by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental
Research (BER); the DOE Basic Energy Sciences (BES) office supports a
network of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers, including the Center for
Lignocellulose Structure and Formation at Pennsylvania State University.
BER also supports the DOE-Michigan State University Plant Research
Laboratory and provides funding to one center within the Complex Car-
bohydrate Research Center (CCRC) at the University of Georgia--the
DOE Center for Plant and Microbial Complex Carbohydrates--while
BER supports a component of the DOE BioEnergy Science Center housed
within the CCRC (Greene, 2011). Within USDA, glycoscience efforts are
focused on improvement to bioconversion processes and on the creation
of value-added agricultural materials and products.
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170 APPENDIX B
B.1.2 Collaborative Glycoscience Initiatives and Research Clusters
Two centers or consortia consistently mentioned as hubs that address
multiple challenges in glycoscience research are the Consortium for Func-
tional Glycomics (CFG) and the CCRC.
The CFG provides glycomics resources directed toward studying the
impact of glycans and glycan-binding proteins on human health and
disease (www.functionalglycomics.org). The consortium is guided by a
steering committee that sets its scientific direction; it also contains two
scientific cores (the Bioinformatics Core and the Protein-Glycan Interac-
tion Core), along with hundreds of participating investigators located
at institutions in this country and around the world organized into sub-
groups based on research interests. These groups include glycan synthesis
and microarrays, glycans in immune recognition and function, glycans in
development and physiology, structural glycobiology, glycans in cancer
biology, and glycomics and glycoinformatics. The CFG maintains the
functional glycomics gateway (http://www.functionalglycomics.org) and
acts as the central hub and clearinghouse for glycomics, offering resources
that include glycomics profiling, carbohydrate compounds and reagents,
microarray analysis, mouse phenotyping, glycan array screening, and
databases to investigators whose projects are approved for scientific rel-
evance by the consortium's steering committee. Although NIH funding to
support the CFG through its Glue Grant mechanism has now ended, the
consortium continues and mechanisms have been established to enable
ongoing access to the resources and tools it has developed.
The CCRC, housed at the University of Georgia, seeks to foster
"cooperation and collaboration among disciplines (biomedical, plant, and
microbial glycosciences, synthetic and analytical chemistry) both within
the CCRC and with scientists worldwide and to foster analytical service
and training" in carbohydrate research (http://www.ccrc.uga.edu). It
is funded by a combination of federal, state, industry, foundation, and
research funds and is made up of a cluster of centers each addressing dif-
ferent aspects of carbohydrate research. These include the Center for Plant
and Microbial Complex Carbohydrates (funded by DOE's BES); Inte-
grated Technology Resource for Biomedical Glycomics (funded by NIH);
Research Resource for Integrated Glycotechnology (funded by NIH);
Southeast Collaboratory for Biomolecular NMR (funded by NIGMS and
the Georgia Research Alliance; research initiatives on GLYCAM/AMBER
Modeling Tools for Glycoscience; Monoclonal Antibodies for Plant Cell
Walls (funded by NSF); and Plant Cell Walls and Biomass Recalcitrance
(both components of the Bioenergy Science Center [BESC], funded by the
DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research).
In addition to the two multidisciplinary organizations described
above, a variety of other U.S. research programs and clusters of research
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APPENDIX B 171
expertise were noted by respondents who provided input through the
committee's website or were identified during other data-gathering
efforts. Several of these are listed here to help underscore that research
is occurring nationwide. It should be emphasized that the list below (in
alphabetical order by university and/or geographical "cluster") does
not reflect the only places in which important and useful glycoscience
research is under way:
· Baltimore-Washington cluster, including Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, University of Maryland, and intramural research at NIH,
such as the Carbohydrate Section of the National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases;
· Cornell University;
· Emory University School of Medicine;
· Harvard University;
· Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center;
· National Center for Glycomics and Glycoproteomics, Indiana
University;
· National Renewable Energy Laboratory;
· C3Bio, Purdue University;
· San Diego, California, cluster, including the Glycobiology Research
and Training Center; University of California, San Diego, which
incorporates researchers at Salk, Scripps, and Sanford-Burnham
in La Jolla; and glycoscientists elsewhere throughout California;
· University of California, Davis;
· Glycomics Center, University of New Hampshire;
· USDA-ARS Laboratory and USDA-Forest Service Forest Products
Laboratory; and
· Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
B.2 AN OVERVIEW OF GLYCOSCIENCE
OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES
Active clusters of glycoscience research are located around the world,
and a few of these regions are highlighted below. Different research orga-
nizations or even different countries may have greater expertise in cer-
tain aspects of glycoscience, such as medical applications, biofuels and
biomass, mammalian glycoscience, bacterial glycoscience, or enzyme
research. The data gathering conducted by the committee was intended
to be fairly broad in scope in order to identify centers of expertise beyond
the intersection of glycoscience with human health. Again, the list below
should not be considered comprehensive; it is meant to provide a sense
of major ongoing efforts.
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172 APPENDIX B
B.2.1Canada
Glycoscience programs in Canada include the Alberta Glycomics
Centre (www.glycomicscentre.ca), a partnership between the University
of Alberta and the University of Calgary that conducts multidisciplinary
research in glycoscience and carbohydrate chemistry, such as the develop-
ment of analytical methods, structural studies, and research on carbohy-
drate therapeutics. Other ongoing efforts in Canada include those at the
University of Toronto and the National Research Council Canada Institute
for Biological Sciences in Ottawa.
B.2.2 United Kingdom and Europe
Within the United Kingdom, glycoscience research is supported by
such organizations as the Wellcome Trust, the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council, and the Medical Research Council; centers of activ-
ity include Imperial College London and the University of Oxford and
University of Dundee. Collaborative efforts include the UK Glycoarrays
Consortium (http://www.glycoarrays.org.uk), which draws on scien-
tists from the universities of Dundee, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford,
East Anglia, and Imperial College London to develop carbohydrate
microarrays.
In Europe glycoscience research is supported by both national funding
organizations such as the Deutsch Forschungsgemeinschaft in Germany
and through programs such as the European Commission (EC). One cur-
rent EC-supported initiative is the Euroglycosciences Forum (http://www.
egsf.org), supported through the European Science Foundation Research
Network Programme for 2009-2014. The forum seeks to provide access to
glycoscience tools and supports meetings and workshops to link members
of the glycoscience community. A variety of database and bioinformatics
resources are housed in Europe, including EuroCarbDB (http://www.
eurocarbdb.org), funded under the 6th Research Framework Program of
the European Union, and subsequent related efforts such as UniCarb-DB
(http://unicarb-db.biomedicine.gu.se), supported as a partnership by
the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Macquarie University, Swiss
Institute for Bioinformatics, and the National Institute for Bioprocessing
Research and Training (Ireland), along with support from the Swedish
Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Educa-
tion and the Australian Research Council. Other resources include Glyco-
sciences.de (http://www.glycosciences.de); the CASPER tool for analysis
of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra developed at Stockholm Univer-
sity; the GlycoWorkbench suite of tools for mass spectrometry-based gly-
comics (http://www.glycoworkbench.org) developed at Imperial Col-
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APPENDIX B 173
lege London; the Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes database (http://www.
cazy.org), developed by CNRS and Aix-Marseille University (France); the
EuroGlycoArrays training network (http://www.euroglycoarrays.eu),
supported under the Seventh Framework Programme of the EC; and the
Euroglycanet network for congenital disorders of glycosylation (http://
www.euroglycanet.org).
A range of additional research centers and programs were noted by
participants who provided input through the committee's website or were
identified through the Web of Science citation search. In Europe these
included:
· Carlsberg Laboratory, Denmark, which researches barley, yeast,
brewing, and fermenting technology;
· Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolecules Vegetales of the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France;
· Ghent University, Belgium;
· Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge, Spain;
· Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France; and
· Carbohydrate Competence Center, The Netherlands.
B.2.3Asia
Asia is a center of glycoscience research, and there is significant and
emerging interest in such countries as Japan, South Korea, and China.
In Japan glycoscience research is supported by the Ministry of Educa-
tion, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Japan Soci-
ety for the Promotion of Science, as well as by such organizations as the
Mitzutani Foundation for Glycoscience. A recently established initiative
is the Japan Consortium for GlycoBiology and Glycotechnology (http://
www.jcgg.jp/index_e.html), supported by MEXT, which has developed
the JCGGDB database to house data, including the GlycoGeneDataBase,
the Glycan Mass Spectral DataBase, the Lectin Frontier DataBase, and the
Glycoprotein Database. MEXT is also supporting a neuroglycobiology
project (2011-2015) with the goal of deciphering sugar chainbased signals
that regulate integrative neuronal functions. Glycoscience research centers
in Japan include the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology, Kyoto University, University of Tokyo, and RIKEN, which
includes the RIKEN Omics Science Center, the RIKEN Bioinformatics and
Systems Engineering Division, and the System Glycobiology Research
Group. Through a program on exploratory research for advanced technol-
ogy, RIKEN is leading a 5-year glycotrilogy project linking molecular biol-
ogy, synthetic chemistry, and analytical chemistry to study glycans and
glycan derivatives. RIKEN recently partnered with the Max Planck Insti-
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174 APPENDIX B
tute of Colloids and Interfaces in Germany to establish a joint research
center in systems chemical biology on areas such as disease glycomics
and oligosaccharide synthesis.
In China glycoscience research is funded under the National Basic
Research Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and by
the National Natural Science Foundation of China, which manages the
National Natural Science Fund and promotes basic and applied research.
Active glycoscience research is carried out in laboratories within the Chi-
nese Academy of Sciences.
Glycoscience research is also conducted in Taiwan--for example, at
the Academia Sinica and at several national universities. The Taiwan
GlycoForum (https://sites.google.com/site/taiwanglycoforum/home)
was established in 2011 to provide a mechanism for communication and
collaboration.
The Australia and New Zealand Glycosciences Group seeks to pro-
vide a forum for the glycoscience community in these countries. Well-
known programs include the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith Univer-
sity (http://www.griffith.edu.au/science-aviation/institute-glycomics),
which focuses on understanding the roles of glycans in disease through
investigations of both mammalian and microbial glycomics and on devel-
opment of enabling technologies such as new synthesis and analytical
tools. Glycomics research is also conducted at Macquarie University in
Sydney, and established programs that analyze plant cell walls include
those at the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence
in Plant Cell Walls at the University of Adelaide (http://www.adelaide.
edu.au/plant-cell-walls).
B.2.4 Latin America
Glycoscience research is supported in Brazil by the Conselho Nacio-
nal de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, the Coordenação de
Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, and the Fundação de
Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo. Respondents to the com-
mittee's website included scientists from Chile and Mexico, indicating
ongoing research efforts in these countries as well.
The international nature of glycoscience research and the existence of
significant centers of excellence outside the United States are important
factors to keep in view as the U.S. research community and federal agen-
cies look toward the future development and transformative potential
of the field. Key challenges to advance glycoscience may be shared, and
the development of many types of resources, such as common standards
for interpretation and sharing of glycan structural data, will necessarily
need to be achieved within the framework of a global community to be
truly effective.
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APPENDIX B 175
B.3 INDUSTRY INTEREST IN GLYCOBIOLOGY
This very brief summary is not meant to capture the totality of indus-
try interest across the field but rather to highlight just a few of the existing
investments in research, development, and application of glycoscience.
Mention of specific companies is made solely for illustrative purposes
and reflects information obtained during the committee's data gathering
or from committee members' knowledge of the field. Such mention does
not in any way imply committee, NRC, or study sponsor endorsement of
any commercial product or service.2
Companies with interests in therapeutic glycoproteins include Amgen
(e.g., erythropoietin) and Genentech (e.g., antibodies and the antiinflu-
enza drug Tamiflu, originally involving Gilead Sciences). Genzyme's drug
Cerezyme, approved in 1994, provides enzyme replacement for the treat-
ment of Type 1 Gaucher disease and uses carbohydrate targeting. Other
companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (manufacturer of the antiinfluenza
drug Relenza, originally developed in part with Biota Holdings), Baxter
(with its drug heparin), and Wyeth (now Pfizer, for glycoconjugate vac-
cines) have major programs in glycoscience or aspects of glycoscience.
GlycoFi, established in 2000 to develop yeast-based production systems
for protein-based drugs, was acquired by Merck in 2006. Novo Nordisk
conducts clinical trials for the hemophilia treatment GlycoPEGylated fac-
tor IX, which contains polyethylene glycol groups linked to glycan chains
through carbohydrate engineering to prolong the pharmacokinetics.
Smaller companies active in aspects of glycoscience include GlycoMimet-
ics, Inc. (focused on compounds that target cellular adhesion molecules
such as selectins); ProtAffin (development of glycan-binding pharmaceu-
ticals); GlycoMira Therapeutics (development of heparin derivatives);
Sialix, Inc. (focused on pathological effects and a nonhuman sialic acid);
Momenta (heparin and heparan sulfate); Biomarin (carbohydrate-based
targeting for enzyme replacement therapy); Hyalose (tissue engineering
and therapeutics based on hyaluronic acid), Zacharon (therapeutics and
diagnostics for rare storage diseases); Ancora (carbohydrate-based vac-
cines and custom synthesis); and Selexys Pharmaceuticals (antibodies to
P-selectin and its ligand). International companies include Dextra (syn-
thetic oligosaccharides) and Seikagaku (oligosaccharides and enzymes).
Companies in the energy industry, including large corporations such as
BP and ExxonMobil, are interested in cellulose-based biofuels, an area that
will rely on glycoscience as it develops.
2Several members of the committee are associated with companies or have received fund-
ing from companies identified above, including Genentech, Inc. (Bertozzi; Lowe); GlaxoS-
mithKline (Bertozzi); GlycoMimetics, Inc. (Bertozzi); and Sialix, Inc. (Varki).
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