A Quarter Century of Glycobiology.

Abstract

As was pointed out in the editorial in the very first issue ofGlycobiology (Hart 1990), the study of the biology of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates dates back to the earliest foundations of biochemistry. What is now the Society for Glycobiology dates back to small meetings organized by the founding fathers of our field, which took place in the early 1960s (for a historical review, see Silbert at http://www. glycobiology.org/files/sfg_history.pdf ). The Society for Complex Carbohydrates was formalized in 1972, and it was agreed to have a Society meeting every year in the fall. In these early days, much of the work in the field was focused on the chemical and structural analyses of glycoconjugates, while the biological functions of glycans remained largely enigmatic. Given the limited technology of the period, the accomplishments of these early glycoscientists are remarkable! By the late 1980s, it was evident that glycoconjugates play key roles in nearly every aspect of biology, including major diseases that affect mankind. Indeed, a number of “glyco-focused” biotech companies were created leading to renewed interest in our rapidly growing field. In addition, technological advances allowed for meaningful research into the structure/functions of complex glycans in complex biological systems. The realization that glycans are critically important to nearly all aspects of biology led to coining of the term “glycobiology” (Rademacher et al. 1988). During this era, papers on glycoconjugates were published in a wide array of different types of journals, ranging from those focused on mostly chemistry to others focused mainly on biology. Thus, it was realized that glycobiology papers were either buried within thick issues of general biochemistry journals or diluted among papers in highly specialized journals focused mostly on immunology, neurobiology, virology, developmental biology and many other disciplines. In 1989, after discussions with Oxford University Press, plans to create the journal Glycobiology were finalized. An editorial board of leaders in all areas of our field was selected. It was planned that each issue of Glycobiology would contain invited mini-reviews, which would convey exciting breakthroughs in an easily readable format accessible to the general bioscience communities. Each issue would also have a “Glyco-Forum” section to highlight news, meeting announcements, and to provide a vehicle for sharing ideas not appropriate for formal research publications. An original aim of the Journal was to not only publish the best science in glycobiology, but also to keep publication times as rapid as possible. The first issue of Glycobiology was published in September of 1990 with Gerald W. Hart as Editor-in-Chief, and Anne Dell, Akira Kobata and DirkH. van den Eijnden serving as Executive Editors. Both the Editors and Board members were selected from all over the world, reflecting the international focus of the new journal. The first cover of the journal showed a Haworth Projection of a hexose enclosing an electron micrograph of the Golgi (Figure 1, reproduced on the cover of this issue), reflecting the importance of this organelle in the biosynthesis of complex glycans. In the early 1990s, it became apparent to the Board of Directors of the Society for Complex Carbohydrates that the Society’s name did not adequately reflect the new directions of the field into myriad diverse areas of biology. At the 22nd Annual Meeting (1993) in Puerto Rico, the membership nearly unanimously voted to both change the name of the Society to “Society for Glycobiology” and also to make Glycobiology the Society’s official journal (Hart 1994). By 1996, it was very clear that Glycobiology was not only the leading specialty journal in our field, but also thatGlycobiology ranked highly in terms of its relative impact among all biochemical journals, only just behind Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of Molecular Biology but ahead of Proteins, Biochemistry, Biochemical Journal and European Journal of Biochemistry (Hart 1996). Figure 1: Cover of inaugural issue. Glycobiology, 2015, vol. 25, no. 12, 1321–1322 doi: 10.1093/glycob/cwv090 Glyco-Forum