Publications

In 2004, Research Association of Biotechnology (RAB) asked JCGG to do some survey on “Trends in Glycoscience”. JCGG appointed Toshisuke Kawasaki as a chair of the survey committee and ten more people as committee members to investigate trends in glycoscience in Japan.

The survey had been done on the several aspects such as “Present and future trends in glyco-research”, “Domestic research environment for glycoscience”, “Glycoscience research environment abroad”. More than one hundred forty glycoscientists were involved in this survey. Next year, the survey results were put together in “Report on the survey of Glycoscience research” under joint authorships of JCGG and RAB. [1]

In the same year, results of this survey with further details became in print as an academic publication in Japanese from Kimpodo, Inc.: “Glycoscience: A Door to Open the Future“ (Editor-in-Chief: Toshisuke Kawasaki, Editors: Yukishige Ito, Makoto Kiso, Akemi Suzuki, Naoyuki Taniguchi, Hisahi Narimatsu, Sumihiro Hase, and Koichi Furukawa, Supervision: Yoshitaka Nagai) [2].

JCGG further planned to publish the English version which was based on the previous survey but largely modified and updated. This book was edited under the three points of view: 1) as a “cookbook” with which researchers will be able to prepare the solutions described and follow “recipes” to complete their experiments; 2) as a "guideline" which will allow researchers to search out the discipline, research equipment, research device, or methodology required; and 3) as a "table" providing an overview of the research data, among other information. In this way, the two books entitled "Experimental Glycoscience; Glycobiology" and "Experimental Glycoscience; Glycochemistry" by 120 glycoscientist' co-authoring were published .from Springer in July 2008 (Editor-in-Chief: Naoyuki Taniguchi, Editors: Yukishige Ito, Akemi Suzuki, Hisashi Narimatsu, Toshisuke Kawasaki, Sumihiro Hase) [3].

The National Academies assembled experts in glycoscience to form the Committee on Accessing the Importance and Impact of Glycomics and Glycosciences and in 2012 the National Research Council published the report brief, “Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future” [4]. Members of JCGG soon realized that the report would be essential and valuable also for the glycoscience community in our country, thus the consortium published the translation of “Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future” under agreement with the National Academy of Sciences in 2013 [5].

In order to comprehend the transitioning status of glycoscience, JCGG planning committee proposed to publish a book, “Glycoscience: Biology and Medicine [6].” The plan was promoted by five editors-in-chief, Naoyuki Taniguchi, Tamao Endo, Gerald Hart, Peter Seeberger, Chi-huey Wong, and nine specialized editors mainly from the members of JCGG planning committee.
In November 2014, the book was published from Springer Inc. It consists of two volumes covering a wide range of glycoscience from basic biology to applied medicine with a total of 256 chapters divided in 15 chapters. Nearly 200 authors, each highly expert in the field, contributed an article describing their work, or an overview of the field, and with their help, JCGG was able to publish a book which reflects the status of current glycoscinece. The content of the book can be viewed at the following link;
http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007%2F978-4-431-54836-2