About Glycotechnology

Oligosaccharides are third-order essential biopolymers like nucleic acids and proteins.
Oligosaccharide functions have been rapidly revealed in recent discoveries.
For example, it has become well known that oligosaccharides are closely concerned with biological phenomena such as cell differentiation, aging, immune responses and diseases like cancer, viral infection and inflammation. There are great expectations for the discovery of novel oligosaccharide functions at the molecular level and even greater anticipation of the discovery of applications for oligosaccharide-derived drugs. However, it is extremely difficult to obtain homogeneous oligosaccharides on a large scale from several tissues, since oligosaccharides have diverse sugar sequences and only found in trace quantities in organisms.

Otsuka Chemical Co., Ltd., has now established the world’s first production methods for more than 30 types of human aspargine-linked oligosaccharides (N-linked oligosaccharides) and set up mass production facilities for homogenous oligosaccharides. We have also established glycosylation technologies for the preparation of glycopeptides and glycoproteins using these oligosaccharides.