Harvard Medical School Center for Glycoscience

Advancing Research into Glycomics

The HMS Center for Glycoscience was launched in 2016 and is based in the Department of Surgery. It is the epicenter for translational research for basic and translational researchers and for clinicians at Harvard and in the Boston area who are studying the structures, biological functions, and metabolism of complex carbohydrates (glycomolecules) found in glycoproteins, glycolipids, and polysaccharides. Such glycomolecules are central to human development and many processes in health and disease. Defects in either biosynthesis (dysglycosylation) or degradation of glycomolecules are associated with hundreds of human disorders. A major goal of the HMS Center for Glycoscience is to translate discoveries into new therapies and diagnostics to improve human health.

The Director of the HMS Center for Glycoscience is Richard D. Cummings, PhD, an international leader in the rapidly emerging fields of glycobiology and glycomics. He is also the Chief of Surgical Sciences and the Vice Chair of Basic and Translational Research in the Department of Surgery. He is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Surgery in the Field of Nutrition Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cummings serves as the Director of the National Center for Functional Glycomics funded by the NIH, and the Chair of the Consortium for Functional Glycomics, an international group of investigators in glycosciences.