Carbohydrate microarrays as powerful tools in studies of carbohydrate-mediated biological processes.

Carbohydrate microarrays have become very powerful tools to elucidate the molecular basis of carbohydrate-recognition events in a high-throughput manner. This microarray technology has been applied in the rapid analysis of the binding properties of a variety of binding partners such as lectins, antibodies, mammalian cells, pathogens and viruses. In this feature article, methods for the preparation of carbohydrate microarrays and their applications in biological and biomedical research are described.