Defined in the narrowest sense, glycobiology is the study of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of saccharides (sugar chains or glycans) that are widely distributed in nature.
[1][2] Sugars or saccharides are essential components of all living things and aspects of the various roles they play in biology are researched in various medical, biochemical and biotechnological fields.
According to Oxford English Dictionary the specific term glycobiology was coined in 1988 by Prof. Raymond Dwek to recognize the coming together of the traditional disciplines of carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry.
[10] The study of glycan structures is also complicated by the lack of a direct template for their biosynthesis, contrary to the case with proteins where their amino acid sequence is determined by their corresponding gene.
Current techniques for structural annotation and analysis of glycans include liquid chromatography (LC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and lectin arrays.
Although MRM has been used extensively in metabolomics and proteomics, its high sensitivity and linear response over a wide dynamic range make it especially suited for glycan biomarker research and discovery.
Glycobiology, in which recent developments have been made possible by the latest technological advances, helps provide a more specific and precise understanding of skin aging.