A two-day Chemical Glycobiology Symposium is being organized by Assistant Professor Xi Chen (PI)? from the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis, Professor Peng George Wang? (co-organizer) from the Departments of Biochemistry and Chemistry at the Ohio State University, and Dr.? Randall Halcomb (co-organizer) from Gilead Sciences. The symposium will be held on September 10-11,? 2006 during the 232nd American Chemical Society National Meeting at San Francisco, CA. Four half-day? meetings covering four special topics on chemical glycobiology have been planned, including: (1) Inhibition? of carbohydrate processing enzymes; (2) Oligosaccharide- & Polysaccharide- based pharmaceuticals; (3)? Carbohydrate-based vaccines; and (4) Glycolipid/Glycoprotein based biopharmaceuticals. Twenty five? scientists from Academia, Industry, and NIH have confirmed to speak at the symposium. Talks to be? presented will span from basic biomedical research, through applied research, to conduct of clinical trials.? Carbohydrate-containing structures play pivotal roles in many physiologically and pathologically? important processes, including cellular recognition and communication, bacterial and viral infection,? development, tumor metastasis, etc. Understanding the important roles of carbohydrates is critical to control? and prevent many diseases caused by human infectious agents. With the rapid advance in glycobiology and? carbohydrate chemistry, many possible pharmaceutical applications of carbohydrate-based materials are? merging. However, carbohydrates-based drug development lags far behind the advance of basic science.? The major objective of the Chemical Glycobiology Symposium is to establish strong connections between? carbohydrate-based basic science and pharmaceutical application.
Three specific aims are: 1, to bring? together scientists in the carbohydrate and glycobiology fields, ranging from established investigators from? academia, industry (including both small biotech and big pharmaceutical companies), and NIH, as well as? young investigators, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students, in a? symposium format to present and discuss recent advances of carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology and? their application in drug discovery and development; 2, to attract scientists in related chemistry fields, such? as medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, chemical education, chemical information,? computation chemistry, industrial and engineering chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, polymer? chemistry, chemical toxicology, etc. to the carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology fields by presenting the? symposium in the American Chemical Society National Meeting setting; 3, to share information to? non-meeting participants and to educate others by publishing a book in American Chemical Society? Symposium Series.
