Polysaccharides, also known as glycans, are polymers made of several monosaccharides sequentially ramified via glycosidic bonds. These molecular entities are often conjugated to proteins (glycoproteins, proteoglycans) or lipids (glycolipids) and intervene in many different biological processes such as folding pathway, signal transduction or cell communication. These two last natural phenomena are rendered possible through interactions between saccharides and other elements of the organism.

This webserver proposes a toolbox, which helps in a very easy way build up glycans, even complicated. If this is the first time for you, please, have a look at the documentation.

If you want to watch an animation that shows you how polysaccharides are built up, from succesive molecular dynamic simulations and minimization steps, click here.
This exemple defines an unrealistic circular polysaccharide made of the eight basic pyranoses in their D form.