The Molecular Immunology of Complex Carbohydrates-3

Abstract

I organized this symposium, ``Molecular Immunology of Complex Carbohydrates-2 (MICC-2),'' at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan th between August 28-September 2, 1999, as a satellite meeting of the 15 International Glycoconjugate Conference (held August 22-27 in Tokyo, Japan). I also held a Taiwan­ Canada Glycobiology Workshop after this meeting at the Institutes of Biological Chemistry and Chemistry. To promote glycobiology in Taiwan, I offered a Complexs Carbohydrate & Medicine-2 workshop at the Glyco- Research Laboratory, College of Medicine, Chang­ Gung University, Kwei-san, Tao-yuan, Taiwan before the MICC-2 symposium. The lecture and poster materials of these three meetings are collected in these proceedings, which are divided into five Sections and two Appendixes. Section I, entitled ``Protein-Carbohydrate Interactions of Plant and Animal Lectins,'' provides current concepts of lectin-carbohydrate interactions; classification of lectins, based on amino acid sequences, molecular structures, and lectin affinity for carbohydrates. However, the relationships between amino acid sequences and carbohydrate affinity of lectins have to be more thoroughly characterized. The reviews on animal lectins in this Section explore new areas of lectins. Section II, ``Aspects of Structure and Antigenicity of Glycoconjugates,'' provides important information on structural concepts of glyco­ immunology. ``Glycotope Expression (Glycosylation), Metabolism and Functions,'' which play important roles in life processes, are discussed in Section III. Four articles on advances in knowledge on structural roles of glycans and treatment of cancer are discussed in Section IV.