Large-scale Synthesis of Carbohydrates for Pharmaceutical Development

The field of glycobiology has recently enjoyed an enormous expansion boosted by new discoveries of the critical functions that carbohydrates play in nature. Further research in this area and the entry of carbohydrates into the medical and pharmaceutical fields will undoubtedly require easy access to these molecules. Recombinant glycosidases and glycosyltransferases, as well as their mutants and fusion proteins have already been applied in gram or even larger scale carbohydrate synthesis. Most efficient synthetic systems require expensive sugar nucleotides to be regenerated in situ. Solid support-immobilized biosynthetic enzymes and genetically engineered microorganisms have been demonstrated as viable and highly effective avenues to make carbohydrates. The efficiency of such systems makes them ideal for industry and should, at long last, make production of complex carbohydrates economically feasible.