High-throughput chemistry toward complex carbohydrates and carbohydrate-like compounds.

In the area of peptide and nucleic acid chemistry and biology, high-throughput synthesis has played an important role in providing useful small-molecule-based chemical probes in understanding the structure and function relationships. The past several years, there has been a constant rise in interest toward understanding the biological roles and functions of another important class of biomolecules, i.e., carbohydrates and carbohydrate conjugates. Although at early stages, in recent years, several groups have developed high-throughput synthetic methods to obtain complex carbohydrates or carbohydrate-like small-molecules. The present review article summarizes some of these developments.