The term glycomics is derived from the chemical prefix for sweetness or a sugar, "glyco-", and was formed to follow the naming convention established by genomics (which deals with genes) and proteomics (which deals with proteins). The definition of glycomics has evolved to cover a range of scientific disciplines that are applied to study the structure and function of carbohydrates (sugars) in biological systems.
The nine common sugars found in mammalian cells can be combined in a myriad number of ways to form complex carbohydrate structures (glycans). The glycan repertoire (glycome) of a given cell or organism is thus many orders of magnitude more complex than the genome or the proteome.
The rapid advance of enabling technologies such as high-throughput mass spectroscopy, glycan microarrays and carbohydrate chemistry are helping to unravel the complexity resulting from this diversity. Bioinformatics technologies will be increasingly important in managing and integrating the diverse data sets from the different technologies.
The emerging field of glycomics is gathering momentum to earn its place alongside other established 'omics fields such as genomics and proteomics, as envisioned by experts in the field:
'We envisage that the collective enterprise of glycomics over the next decade will begin the process of decoding the glycome, thereby yielding many new insights into its myriad functions and producing diverse advances in the biomedical arena.'
Nature Chemical Biology (2007) 3; 74-77
'The knowledge gained from glycomics will be as important as a basis for the pharmaceutical industry as that discovered in the field of genomics and proteomics during the last 30 years.'
Chem. Eur. J. (2005) 11; 3194 - 3206