Glyco Bioinformatics

Over the past decade, the scientific community of post-proteomics and post-genomics witnessed the rapid evolution of a new scientific field - the glycomics. The investigation of both glycans and glycan-binding proteins and lipids revealed increasingly the role of complex carbohydrates in diverse inter- and intracellular processes. Advances in analytical technologies, carbohydrate chemistry and structural biology led to an increased understanding of the high degree of variability of both composition, structure and function of sugars. Additionally, structure-function studies showed an inherent complexity which is determined by different branching patterns, various possible linkage positions and numerous building blocks. Even though there has been significant progress in the development of interdisciplinary approaches such as experimental and computer scientific tools, the general technological developments in glycomics lag behind those in the proteomic and genomic areas. In particular, despite the current progress in glyco-bioinformatics regarding the computational characterization of carbohydrates, the glycomics community is still lacking a systematic and comprehensive database and analysis software. The database landscape is made up of numerous independent and disconnected databases with partially overlapping core areas. These databases provide neither complete nor compatible data sets on glycan structures. Additionally, since the individual data encoding and analysis software tools do not use a common language for the representation of schematic structures and sequence topologies, data processing and interpretation become extremely challenging. The underlying aim of this symposium is to bring together glycochemists and biologists with experts in bioinformatics and computer sciences to pave the way for a concerted effort in the area of glyco-bioinformatics. Scientists who "produce" data met those who "use" the data. They discussed aspects such as data mining, structure prediction and docking of carbohydrates, as well as web-based services to combine proteomics and glycomics data for structure-function research and glycosylation analysis. This meeting continued successfully the efforts resulting from the first symposium held in October 2009 to discuss the necessity of a uniform data reporting practice that supports biologists, chemists and all interested in glycosciences to enable the integration of their experimental and analysis data into glyco-bioinformatics platforms.

The Beilstein Symposia address contemporary issues in the chemical and related sciences by employing an interdisciplinary approach. Scientists from a wide range of areas - often outside chemistry - are invited to present aspects of their work for discussion with the aim of not only advancing science, but also, furthering interdisciplinary communication. In 2009, the Beilstein-Institut in cooperation with Professor Peter Seeberger, MPI for Colloids and Surfaces (Potsdam), hosted the First Symposium on Glyco-Bioinformatics in Potsdam with the aim to pave the way towards the development of first ideas for the integration of glyco-bioinformatics in an universal platform that will serve biologist, chemists and all interested in glycosciences. Glycomics is an emerging field within the -omics-sciences which addresses the investigation of the structure-function relationships of complex biosynthesized carbohydrates and the role they play within biological systems. The post-genomic era has seen an explosion of activities in the areas of genomics and proteomics in both fundamental research as well as biotechnology applications. Sequencing and synthesis of nucleic acids and proteins has been performed in an automated fashion for many years now; these important basic techniques are now being applied to carbohydrates. Through the work of a number of key laboratories around the world, significant scientific and technical advances are being made resulting in an increasing number of data sets of important interactions of carbohydrates with proteins and nucleic acids become available. The scientific progress of both genomics and proteomics relies on the interdisciplinary nature of a laboratory-based and a computer-based cooperation. Such an interdisciplinary glyco-based community is currently starting to become established; this symposium is aimed at supporting these efforts by bringing together glycochemists and biologists with experts in bioinformatics and computer sciences to lay the ground-work for a concerted effort in the area of glyco-bioinformatics. The symposium covered the use of publicly available data, data mining, structure prediction and docking of carbohydrates, web-based services to combine proteomics and glycomics data for structure-function research and glycosylation analysis. In this Proceedings book ten authors contributed to a comprehensive view on the developments in the emerging field of glyco-bioinformatics.

The Beilstein Symposia address contemporary issues in the chemical and related sciences by employing and interdisciplinary approach. Scientists from a wide range of areas are invited to present aspects of their work for discussion, with the aim of not only advancing sciences, but also enhancing interdisciplinary communication. Traditionally, the Beilstein Symposia are kept small with up to 50 participants to provide a convivial atmosphere for the both lectures and lively discussions and the ready exchange of thoughts and ideas. The appreciation and understanding of the role that carbohydrates play in nature has grown over the last few years driven by the advances in our ability to analyze and synthesize their structures. Their role not only as primary energy-storage molecules but also as structural modifiers of e.g. glycoproteins and glycolipids, as well as in physiological and pathological events such as adherence, cell-cell interaction, transport, signaling and protection is becoming clearer and more accessible to researchers. Over the last decade the fields of glycobiology and glycochemistry in combination with in-silico applications have been augmented by a further field - glycomics. A major aim of glycomics research is to achieve a comprehensive identification and characterization of the repertoire of glycan structures present in an organism, cell or tissue at a defined time. The continual improvement of analysis methods and computational techniques leads to glycan characterization and identification with increased depth, speed and efficiency but also generates ever increasing amounts of data of variable quality and completeness. Thus the many web-accessible repositories result in a highly fragmented knowledgebase which in consequence complicates the development and application of bioinformatics tools for the analysis of this data. This situation has led to a general consensus that community wide efforts should be spent towards consolidating and systematizing the collective knowledgebase with integration of universal bioinformatics tools for both the representation, mining as well as annotation of experimental data sets to advance and interface glycomics with related genomics and proteomics projects. Additionally, both experimentalists and bioinformaticians also expressed their demands for data reporting practices that include the comprehensive description of conditions, techniques and experimental results to enable researchers to evaluate the degree of structural definitions, to interpret the results and to reproduce the experiments. This 3rd Beilstein Glyco-Bioinformatics Symposium brought together those scientists that produce data with those that use the data and make it available to the community. In particular, in their presentations speakers delivered insights into the diverse physiological and structural subtleties of sugars by covering aspects such as: structure-function relationships of carbohydrates, modeling carbohydrate structure and carbohydrate interactions with other biomacromolecules, deciphering carbohydrate signals, carbohydrate identification, annotation and analysis, metadata for the description of glycomics experiments, software tools for data mining and analysis.

Bioinformatics has ignited the imagination of scientists, entrepreneurs and the general public. At the meeting place of two fast growth disciplines, biology and computer science Bioinformatics is one of the cornerstones of the new biology. It is clearly pivotal to the translation of high throughput projects such the human genome project into useful knowledge. Yet despite all this attention, there is no consensus on what exactly is Bioinformatics. There are several canonical topics, such as gene structure prediction, protein functional classification or structure prediction. The present book explores new frontiers in bioinformatics, such as Glycomics or the computational modeling of genetic processes. We also discuss confounding factors that we find crucial to the development of the field, such as the ability to protect and restrict intellectual property in the field, or the challenges involved in educating bioinformatics users. Finally, we touch upon some fundamental questions, such as what information is and how it is captured in biological systems. By bringing to the readers such a broad spectrum of reviews, we hope to capture the vibrant spirit of this young science and to truly represent the fast pace with which it is still developing.

This book is the first to be dedicated to the bioinformatics of carbohydrates and glycoproteins. It provides an introduction to this emerging field of science both for the experimentalist working in glycobiology and glycomics, and also for the computer scientist looking for background information for the development of highly sophisticated algorithmic approaches. The book provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in the field, with reviews on databases, and the tools in use for analysis, interpretation, and prediction of the structures of complex carbohydrates, and demonstrates the value of bioinformatics for glycobiology. The availability of comprehensive databases and corresponding bioinformatics tools, to access and analyse the large amounts of experimental data relating to the structure of carbohydrates, will be a prerequisite for the success of the large-scale glycomics projects that aim to decipher new, so far unknown, biological functions of glycans. Efficient bioinformatics descriptions and tools can considerably enhance the efficiency of glycomics research, in terms of data quality, analysis and experimental costs. For a complete understanding of the molecular processes in which carbohydrates are involved, such as protein–carbohydrate interactions and the impact of glycosylation on protein function, knowledge of the 3D structure of the carbohydrate, the protein–carbohydrate complex, or the glycoprotein is often indispensable. This book provides a thorough introduction into methods used for conformational analysis of carbohydrates. Key features: Describes bioinformatic approaches to handle carbohydrate-active enzymes and glycosylation. Provides an overview on bioinformatics tools that facilitate analysis of carbohydrate structures. Gives introduction into molecular modelling of carbohydrate 3D structure and carbohydrates contained in the Protein Databank. Assumes only a basic knowledge of biology and bioinformatics.

A Focused, State-of-the-Art Overview of This Evolving Field Presents Various Techniques for Glycoinformatics The development and use of informatics tools and databases for glycobiology and glycomics research have increased considerably in recent years. In addition to accumulating well-structured glyco-related data, researchers have now developed semi-automated methods for the annotation of mass spectral data and algorithms for capturing patterns in glycan structure data. These techniques have enabled researchers to gain a better understanding of how these complex structures affect protein function and other biological processes, including cancer. One of the few up-to-date books available in this important area, Glycome Informatics: Methods and Applications covers all known informatics methods pertaining to the study of glycans. It discusses the current status of carbohydrate databases, the latest analytical techniques, and the informatics needed for rapid progress in glycomics research. Providing an overall understanding of glycobiology, this self-contained guide focuses on the development of glycome informatics methods and current problems faced by researchers. It explains how to implement informatics methods in glycobiology. The author includes the required background material on glycobiology as well as the mathematical concepts needed to understand advanced mining and algorithmic techniques. She also suggests project themes for readers looking to begin research in the field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Bioinformatics Research and Applications, ISBRA 2008, held in Atlanta, GA, USA in May 2008. The 35 revised full papers presented together with 6 workshop papers and 6 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 94 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics, including clustering and classification, gene expression analysis, gene networks, genome analysis, motif finding, pathways, protein structure prediction, protein domain interactions, phylogenetics, and software tools.

A new focus on glycoscience, a field that explores the structures and functions of sugars, promises great advances in areas as diverse as medicine, energy generation, and materials science, this report finds. Glycans-also known as carbohydrates, saccharides, or simply as sugars-play central roles in many biological processes and have properties useful in an array of applications. However, glycans have received little attention from the research community due to a lack of tools to probe their often complex structures and properties. Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future presents a roadmap for transforming glycoscience from a field dominated by specialists to a widely studied and integrated discipline, which could lead to a more complete understanding of glycans and help solve key challenges in diverse fields.