"The sugar chains of cells - known collectively as glycans - play a variety of impressive, critical, and often surprising roles in biological systems. Glycobiology is the study of the roles of glycans in the growth and development, function, and survival of an organism. Glyco-related processes, described in vivid detail in the text, have become increasingly significant in many areas of basic research as well as biomedicine and biotechnology." "This new edition of Essentials of Glycobiology covers the general principles and describes the structure and biosynthesis, diversity, and function of glycans and their relevance to both normal physiologic processes and human disease. Several new chapters present significant advances that have occurred since the publication of the first edition. Three sections of note describe organismal diversity, advances in our understanding of disease states and related therapeutic applications, and the genomic view of glycobiology. "Glycomics," analogous to genomics and proteomics, is the systematic study of all glycan structures of a given cell type or organism and paves the way for a more thorough understanding of the functions of these ubiquitous molecules."--BOOK JACKET.