Carbohydrate-Presenting Self-Assembled Monolayers

This chapter commences with an overview of the different methods most commonly used to prepare glycosurfaces. The discussion on these methods is divided over three sections, each reflecting one of the three distinct approaches used to create glycosurfaces: direct formation of carbohydrate-containing self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), use of secondary (or tertiary) reactions to install a carbohydrate on a preformed SAM, and noncovalent immobilization of carbohydrates on a surface. Next, the chapter focuses on several key surface analysis techniques that can be used to characterize a prepared glycosurface and the type of information that can be obtained from each technique. Finally, it discusses several other applications of glycosurfaces in microbiology, focusing on binding, capture, and sensing of bacteria and bacterial toxins and on the multivalency effects that exert a large influence on the interaction between carbohydrates and proteins in biological systems and on fabricated glycosurfaces.