Glycoscience—the study of the complex carbohydrates on the surface of proteins and lipids—has long been the neglected stepchild of molecular biology. Although genomics, proteomics and now systems biology have become hot topics of biomedical research, attracting both researchers and funding, glycoscience has played a rather minor role. Once of little interest to understanding biology on a larger...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01261-9.