In April 2023, the Human Glycome Atlas (HGA) Project was started within the framework of the Large-Scale Academic Frontier Promotion Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The HGA Project advocates for the scientific goal of “Clarifying the Truth of the Extended Central Dogma” and has four strategic segments planned to attain this goal. First, the mission of Segment 1 is to “acquire information on human glycan structures at the glycoproteome level”. Glycans are diverse and heterogeneous, and vary depending on producing cells, protein kinds, and glycosylation sites; furthermore, they are described as alterable with change in cellular status. In this segment, the actual status of glycans is explored based on comprehensive information that has been systematically acquired using a standardized approach, rather than piecemeal information acquired fragmentally and compiled individually. First, efforts are underway to elucidate the whole picture of serum and plasma glycoproteins. ...and more
The Human Glycome Atlas Project (HGA) started in Japan in April 2023. This project will raise the level of glycan information availability, which has been remarkably low relative to that of other major biopolymers (nucleic acids and proteins). For this purpose, human glycan structures and their biosynthesis mechanisms will be comprehensively obtained within the HGA. Human glycan structures, together with clinical information and phenotypes, will be catalogued as individual data of a large population. This information will be stored in the knowledgebase TOHSA, and all researchers worldwide will be able to easily incorporate glycan information into their routine research. Thus, the HGA will give scientists a new vision of life and open a new era of life science. ...and more
