Synthesis and biological activity of oligosaccharide libraries

Random glycosylation has proven remarkably effective for the generation of mixtures of oligosaccharides. Clearly, not all of the possible glycosidically-linked isomers are formed in equal quantity in these reactions. In the instances where product structures have been thoroughly investigated, however, all have been shown to be present. So far, only one random glycosylation step has been performed and the challenge will be to see if two tandem steps can generate a useful oligosaccharide library. Whether or not the present formulation of random glycosylation succeeds as a dominant strategy for the synthesis of oligosaccharide libraries, this important challenge is open to many approaches where creativity in both formulating the problem, as well as experimentally addressing it, warrants a major international effort.