This book was developed from the symposium sponsored by the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry at the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society held October 17-20, in Johnson City, Tennessee.
After a preface by the Editor, this new volume is divided in two sections. The first one includes five "reviews" ranging from general topics such as an overview on synthetic oligosaccharides in glycobiology (Y.C. Lee), drugs based on carbohydrates (M. Petitou), and flexibility of oligosaccharides and other biomolecules (L. Lemer), to more specialized reports: sugar cyanoethylidene derivatives (L.V. Backinowsky), stannyl and stannylene derivatives in oligosaccharide synthesis (T.B. Grindley).
The second section entitled "Synthetic oligosaccharides as tools for the life sciences" contains eleven chapters. Chapter 6 by M. Petitou is devoted to the study of the binding of heparin and antithrombin III using synthetic oligosaccharides. Chapter 8 by K.L. Matta describes the synthesis of oligosaccharides, synthetic acceptors for a-L-fUCOsyltransferases. Chapter 9 by A. Ya. Chemiak reports the preparation of oligosaccharide-polyacrylamide conjugates, and their applications in immunological studies. Chapter 10 by C.P.J. Glaudemans and P. Kov~i~ discusses the preparation of isomaltose-related oligosaccharides, and their interaction with monoclonal antibodies. Chapter 12 by J. Lehmann deals with photolabile, spacer-modified oligosaccharides (SMOs) for probing of receptors binding sites.
The six other chapters deal with sialic acid derivatives. Chapter 7 by R. Roy is devoted to the synthesis and antigenic properties of dendritic a-thiosialosides. Chapter 1l by A. Hasegawa mainly deals with the synthesis of sialyl-Le x oligosaccharides and their ceramide derivatives. Chapter 13 by G. Magnusson reports the synthesis and the conformation of ganglioside lactams. Chapter 14 by T. Ogawa described the synthesis of poly-O-glycosylated fragments of glycophorin A, a sialoglycoprotein. Chapter 15 by N.E. Nifant'ev is dealing with the preparation of sialyl-Le a tetrasaccharide and biotincontaining glycoconjugates. Finally, chapter 15 by R.R. Schmidt is devoted to the chemical synthesis of sialylated glycoconjugates (sialyl-Le x glyco-sphingolipids) using sialyl phosphites as glycosyl donors in combination with the "nitrile effect".