Nanomaterials offer tunable chemical and physical properties, such as electronic, photonic, and magnetic properties. Decoration of nanomaterials with glycans increases solubility and biocompatibility and lowers cytotoxicity, while allowing for multivalent glycan presentation. Given the central role of multivalency in glycobiology, glycosylated nanomaterials are interesting probes to study cellular, tissue, and organismal interactions. Nanomaterials purely composed of glycans, such as polysaccharide nanoparticles or nanocrystals, are interesting imaging agents, drug delivery systems, and tissue scaffolds that illustrate the potential of glycans in nanotechnology.
Copyright © 2022 The Consortium of Glycobiology Editors, La Jolla, California; published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; doi:10.1101/glycobiology.4e.58. All rights reserved.