You are visiting the Carbohydrate Section, which is now part of the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry (Ken Kirk, PhD, Chief) at NIDDK, which is one of Institutes of the National Institutes of Health, located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. in Bethesda, MD. The administrative transfer of the Section from LMC (Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, Dr, K. C. Rice, Chief) to LBC became effective September 1, 2006, when LMC ceased to be part of NIDDK. We are a small, but a strong group, whose members have made many outstanding contributions to carbohydrate chemistry and immunology over some 80 years. When judged by the span of time of continuous research activity in the carbohydrate field, this is probably the oldest group in the whole world! We feel it a privilege to be part of a group with such a rich tradition in the subject we love. The carbohydrate group was originally established in the early years of the 20th century by the unforgettable Claude Hudson (you can learn more about him and Hewitt Fletcher, two remarkable carbohydrate chemists who directed this group in the past, by reading their obituaries in Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry. -- Acknowledgements go out to the Lowary group at the University of Alberta for hosting this comprehensive collection of the Series ADVANCES IN CARBOHYDRATE CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY.)

In 1929, Claude S. Hudson, who had studied with Nernst and van't Hoff, became Head of the Division of Chemistry in the then Hygienic Laboratory, later to evolve into the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Basic biochemistry oriented chemistry of carbohydrates was Hudson's major interest. His work on the relationship between optical rotation and glycoside configuration is well known. In addition, Hudson and his coworkers contributed enormously to the chemistry of saccharides and carbohydrate-specific enzymes. The list of members of that laboratory reads like a who-is-who in early carbohydrate chemistry, and includes Montgomery, Pacsu, Purves, Hann, Richtmyer, Fletcher and many more. In 1951, when Hudson retired, H. G. Fletcher became Chief of the group, now called the Section on Carbohydrates. He continued the outstanding studies on reaction mechanisms, the syntheses of important compounds, such as nucleosides, as well as the fundamental chemistry of ribose and deoxy-ribose. Fletcher and R. K. Ness, his right hand man, as well as Nelson K. Richtmyer, trained a large number of young scientists under the auspices of the Training Program at the NIH. When Fletcher died in 1973 at the young age of 56, one of those, Cornelis (Neil) P. J. Glaudemans, became Chief of the Section. Trained as a carbohydrate chemist, Neil, who had spent post-doctoral time with America's foremost immunochemist Michael Heidelberger, began work on the interactions of bacterial carbohydrate antigens with immunoglobulins on the molecular level. The Section's interest in this area became firmly established and led to characterization of monoclonal anti-carbohydrate antibodies and the development of work on vaccines. After Neil retired in 1998, his associate since the early '80s, Pavol (Paul) Kovac, took over the group, and presently oversees the work on conjugate vaccines based on synthetic fragments of bacterial antigens. With Neil's retirement, the group has been downsized to a total of four members (Paul and his three post-doctoral fellows). They continue working and make significant contributions in the field of conjugate vaccines, be it developing new protocols in syntheses and functionalization of carbohydrates or in studies of fundamentals affecting conjugation. The space allocated to the group is tight but, as many times in the past, we are willing to squeeze in a competent scientist with the ability to bring along his/her own funds and would like to spend some time working with us as a Special Volunteer. We trust our Institute would recognize the respect the Section has earned among scientists in the carbohydrate field, and the excellent reviews the group has been receiving from the Board of Scientific Councilors over a number of years, and hope for brighter times to come as far as funding is concerned. It would be a loss to all involved, including NIH and the scientific community, if the oldest carbohydrate group in the world had to cease to exist with the present Chief's retirement. Paul is not looking forward to that day because, as he often mentions, while he is in the retirement age, he is not in the retirement mood. The work of the group is augmented by collaborations within and outside the NIH, in the United States of America and around the world.