Apart from the various functions of carbohydrates in natural processes they are important building blocks for drugs, especially antibiotics. In addition, carbohydrates are considered as important structures in the immunological recognition process of the antigen-antibody reaction.

The modification of the structure and thereby the chemistry of substrates is a common procedure in nature. This naturally occurring process is reflected in the concept of molecular mimicry, which has become a useful approach in drug discovery. The search for carbohydrate analogues that exhibit better binding activity, biological activity, and stability began with the synthesis of azasugars. A lot of structural modifications around the anomeric center of carbohydrates has been achieved over the last decade, and these are summarized in terms of the different chemical and biological aspects of carbohydrate mimics in one part of this book. In addition to the well established fields of C-glycosides, azasugars and carbasugars the other part of the book focusses on outstanding achievements in carbohydrate mimic research.

Everybody who is active in carbohydrate research or is interested in moving into this exciting field will benefit from this up-to-date source of informations. The leading experts in this field describe their scientific approaches to real interdisciplinary puzzles. This book should be an inspiration to scientists in organic, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and biology.