Using glycome databases for drug discovery

Background: The glycomics field has made great advancements in the last decade due to technologies for their synthesis and analysis including carbohydrate microarrays. Accordingly, databases for glycomics research have also emerged and been made publicly available by many major institutions worldwide. Objective: This review introduces these and other useful databases on which new methods for drug discovery can be developed. Methods: The scope of this review covers current documented and accessible databases and resources pertaining to glycomics. These were selected with the expectation that they may be useful for drug discovery research. Results/conclusion: There is a plethora of glycomics databases that have much potential for drug discovery. This may seem daunting at first but this review helps to put some of these resources into perspective. Additionally, some thoughts on how to integrate these resources to allow more efficient research are presented.