Glycan arrays, like that offered by the Consortium for Functional Glycomics (CFG), National Center for Functional Glycomics (NCFG) and [http://www.zbiotech.com/ Z Biotech, LLC], contain carbohydrate compounds that can be screened with lectins, antibodies or cell receptors to define carbohydrate specificity and identify ligands. Glycan array screening works in much the same way as other microarray that is used for instance to study gene expression DNA microarrays or protein interaction Protein microarrays.
Glycan arrays are composed of various oligosaccharides and/or polysaccharides immobilised on a solid support in a spatially-defined arrangement. This technology provides the means of studying glycan-protein interactions in a high-throughput environment. These natural or synthetic (see carbohydrate synthesis) glycans are then incubated with any glycan-binding protein such as lectins, cell surface receptors or possibly a whole organism such as a virus. Binding is quantified using fluorescence-based detection methods. Certain types of glycan microarrays can even be re-used for multiple samples using a method called Microwave Assisted Wet-Erase.