text: To answer this question one should know the different and important functions of glycans. The following are some of those functions:
  *Glycoproteins and Glycolipids found on the cell surface play a critical role in bacterial and viral recognition.
  *They are involved in cellular signaling pathways and modulate cell function.
  *They are important in innate immunity.
  *They determine cancer development.
  *They orchestrate the cellular fate, inhibit proliferation, regulate circulation and invasion.
  *They affect the stability and folding of proteins.
  *They affect the pathway and fate of glycoproteins.
  *There are many glycan-specific diseases, often hereditary diseases.
  There are important medical applications of aspects of glycomics:
  *Lectins fractionate cells to avoid graft-versus-host disease in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
  *Activation and expansion of cytolytic CD8 T cells in cancer treatment.
  Glycomics is particularly important in microbiology because glycans play diverse roles in bacterial physiology. Research in bacterial glycomics could lead to the development of:
  * novel drugs
  * bioactive glycans
  * glycoconjugate vaccines