Dear Colleagues,

Over the last two decades, glycans have evolved as relevant diagnostic biomarkers and also as a quality attribute for manufactured therapeutic glycoproteins. Glycans are a major constituent of glycolipids as well as secreted and cell surface glycoproteins and account for the overall structural microheterogeneity of these molecules. Human-type glycan structures are characterized by a set of individual glycan moieties composed of varying numbers of glycosidically linked hexose and desoxyhexose units and neuraminic acid. Aberrant patterns of glycosylation have been observed in the context of several diseases and are therefore being developed into valuable biomarkers that help to distinguish a healthy from the diseased state and lift the power of diagnostic assays to yet another level. The heterogenic profile of N- and O-glycan compositions within a manufactured batch of bulk drug substance affects the overall efficacy of the biologic drug and is therefore considered to be a critical quality attribute that needs to be monitored throughout production and in the context of product release. The industry has started to address this need to match specific desirable glycan compositions by glycan engineering of host cells as well as by linking process parameters to drug substance glycan quality attributes via QbD type process design and development accompanied by concomitant monitoring of the drug substance glycan structure. Glycan discovery, glycan engineering and glycan analytics are among the most important fields of current biopharma research. There is an urgent need for advancement in all of these sectors.  This Special Issue of Bioengineering on “Glycans in therapy and disease” comprises expert contributions from industry and academia on glycans in the context of diagnostic biomarker discovery and development, glycan structure as a target for molecular engineering of production hosts for therapeutic glycoproteins and current advances in glycan analytical technology. 

Dr. Volker Sandig
Prof. Dr. Hans Henning Von Horsten
Prof. Dr. Stephan Hinderlich
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Bioengineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.