Immunobiology of Carbohydrates

This book is unique in providing pertinent information on the various established roles carbohydrate play in the immune system and how the innate and adaptive immune systems respond to this type of microbial antigens. The editors selected only topics that have established basic and clinical relevance to this field. The topics from basic research are organised like a textbook, in order to guide the readers through complex sets of events that lead to clearance of or to immune responses toward carbohydrate antigens. The book is clear, concise and contains fully annotated summaries of the key basic and practical information on carbohydrate immunology from current literature. These topics are written by investigators from various disciplines (chemistry, medicine, biochemistry, glycobiology and immunology), creating a fine balance in the point of views presented in the book. It explores the challenges and rewards of understanding the importance of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates in health and disease, applying new knowledge from carbohydrate immunology in improving or developing novel sugar-based therapeutics, and vaccines and medicines. This book is most suitable for glycobiologists and immunologists, but many researchers whose interests, background and expertise are in any of the fifteen topics presented in this book will also find it appealing. It is also a valuable resource for postgraduate students, clinicians or anyone else who is curious about the role of carbohydrates in immunology, and would like to see the topics combined under one cover and in relation to each other.