Glyconanotechnology.

Glyconanotechnology can be seen as the synergy between nanotechnology and glycan related biological and medical problems. This review focuses on the crosstalk of glycoscience and nanotechnology, which will lead to a deeper understanding of glycobiology and to new glyco-materials with improved design and synergistic properties derived from glycoscience concepts for future nanodevices. It is intended to provide the glycoscientist with an application-oriented entry to the possibilities of nanotechnologies for his research. The most recent examples of glyco-nanomaterials as multivalent scaffolds for drug delivery, enzyme inhibition and for vaccine development, glycan functionalized quantum dots and nanoparticles in molecular imaging, biosensors for lectin/glycan detection based on nanomaterials, and new concepts for the affinity separation and analysis using nanomaterials or nanotools are revised.