The Future of Glycoscience: Where Glycan Research Is Heading in the Next Decade

Glycoscience,which is the study of glycans (complex sugars) and their role in biology, is transitioning from a specialized research discipline into a foundational layer of personalized, preventive medicine. Prof. Gordan Lauc, CSO and Co-Founder of GlycanAge, has argued that glycans will ultimately become the most informative biomarkers in medicine, precisely because they integrate genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors into a single measurable signal. That integration is what separates glycan science from every other measurement approach in longevity medicine today.

For a deeper grounding in what glycans are and how they reveal biological age and immune health, see our guide: Glycans: The Sugars That Reveal Your Biological Age and Immune Health.

How are glycans different from genes and epigenetic markers?

Glycans occupy a unique position in biology: they change in response to lifestyle, stress, hormones, and disease, unlike genes, which are static, while remaining stable enough to filter out the daily fluctuations that make standard blood panels unreliable for aging research.

"We either use things which are measuring metabolites, enzymes, glucose concentration, which change extremely quickly, or we look at genes, which don't change at all. We are missing some kind of intermediate phenotype between these day-to-day altering molecules and genes that do not change. These are the glycans."

— Prof. Gordan Lauc, Chief Scientific Officer, GlycanAge; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Zagreb

That intermediate position is scientifically significant. Genes encode risk that cannot be modified; glycans encode that same genetic risk plus the cumulative effect of everything you have done to your biology over the past decade. For longevity practitioners, this means glycan biomarkers can answer a question genes never can: is this patient's biology improving?

Will glycans become routine diagnostic biomarkers in clinical practice?

Glycans are not yet routine diagnostic biomarkers, but the trajectory is clear. The bottleneck has been throughput: high-quality glycan analysis has historically required specialized infrastructure. That is changing. Genos, the laboratory behind GlycanAge, processes approximately 85% of samples for high-throughput glycomic studies worldwide. This scale of analytical capacity makes glycan testing increasingly viable for routine clinical workflows.

For functional medicine practitioners, the practical implication is that glycan biomarkers are already clinically useful for monitoring and intervention tracking, even before they carry formal diagnostic status. The monitoring application does not require regulatory approval; it requires a validated, reproducible measurement, which GlycanAge provides.

How will glycans be used as therapeutic targets, not just biomarkers?

The next decade of glycoscience will move beyond measurement into intervention. Prof. Ronald Schnaar, professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, points to drugs already in the clinic that work by mimicking or modifying glycan structures, including Tamiflu, which mimics sialic acid (a type of glycan) to alter the course of influenza infection. In inflammation specifically, both sugar mimetics and glycan-binding proteins are currently in clinical trials for persistent inflammatory diseases.

The honest position for practitioners advising patients today is that glycan-targeted therapeutics are a genuine near-future development, but glycan supplements currently on the market lack clinical validation. The actionable application right now is measurement and monitoring, not supplementation.

What role will glycans play in oncology and autoimmune disease?

Prof. Salomé Pinho, Immunology, Cancer and Glyco Medicine Group Leader at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), University of Porto, describes glyco medicine as a transforming field spanning the frontiers of infection, inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer. In oncology and autoimmune disease, glycan signatures detected at diagnosis already show prognostic value: they can predict response to therapy and disease trajectory.

IgG glycosylation (the pattern of glycans attached to Immunoglobulin G antibodies, which GlycanAge measures) has demonstrated particular relevance in autoimmune conditions. A landmark paper showed that changes in IgG glycosylation precede the clinical onset of rheumatoid arthritis, making glycan profiling a potential early-warning signal years before symptoms appear. For functional medicine clinicians managing patients with autoimmune risk or active autoimmune conditions, this positions IgG glycan monitoring as a meaningful addition to existing biomarker panels.

Can glycans predict disease risk years before symptoms appear?

Yes, and this is one of the most clinically significant properties of glycan biomarkers. Glycan profiles have been shown to reflect the early molecular fingerprints of disease, often years before clinical symptoms appear. In metabolic disease specifically, a particular glycan profile has been observed to change up to 10 years prior to a clinical diagnosis of insulin resistance, and that same profile responds to weight loss and dietary intervention.

For longevity practitioners, this predictive window is the core clinical value proposition. Standard blood panels capture acute states; glycans capture trajectory. Prof. Lauc has tracked his own GlycanAge over nearly a decade, demonstrating that sensitivity to cumulative biological change, rather than daily fluctuation, is what makes glycan monitoring actionable for long-term health strategy.

"I can see that what I do in my life is actually affecting the pace of glycan change. If I change to a healthier lifestyle, it actually goes down. In a difficult period, it can accelerate — and in a year I could lose 10 years of my GlycanAge."

— Prof. Gordan Lauc, Chief Scientific Officer, GlycanAge; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Zagreb

That sensitivity to cumulative biological change, rather than daily fluctuation, is what makes glycan monitoring actionable for long-term health strategy.

How will glycan science reshape personalized medicine over the next decade?

The four-criteria framework for future medicine — preventive, predictive, participatory, and personalized — maps directly onto what glycan biomarkers already deliver. Glycans are preventive because they signal disease risk before symptoms; predictive because they integrate genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors into a single measurable output; participatory because individuals can track their own biology and respond to it; and personalized because glycan profiles vary meaningfully between individuals and respond to individual interventions.

For functional medicine practitioners building longitudinal patient monitoring into their practice, glycan biomarkers are the missing layer between static genetic risk and dynamic clinical management.

"Glycans will become the most important prognostic biomarkers, which will tell us how far on the path from disease to health we have already passed, because genes can tell us the risk which you cannot change, and glycans will enrich this genetic risk with past lifestyle."

— Prof. Gordan Lauc, Chief Scientific Officer, GlycanAge; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Zagreb

What should longevity practitioners do with glycan science right now?

The research is clear that glycans are among the most promising biomarkers for capturing how stress, trauma, lifestyle, and environment shape immune and inflammatory biology, and that they can shift in response to interventions, making them "uniquely positioned to inform prevention and guide treatment." The practical step for clinicians is to begin using validated glycan measurement, specifically IgG glycosylation via GlycanAge, to baseline patients, track intervention effectiveness, and detect biological change before it becomes clinical disease.

The field still needs larger longitudinal cohorts, refined reference ranges, and broader validation across diverse populations. But waiting for perfect data means missing the window to act on the best available signal. GlycanAge is built on over 30 years of glycobiology research, more than 350 published scientific papers, and over 300,000 glycan samples analyzed, which is the largest validated dataset in the field.

If you're integrating biological age monitoring into your clinical workflow, GlycanAge provides the validated IgG glycan measurement, clinical interpretation support, and retest infrastructure to make glycan science actionable today.

Explore GlycanAge for Healthcare Providers →

External Sources

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29572115/ — Gudelj I, Salo PP, Trbojević-Akmačić I, Albers M, Primorac D, Perola M, Lauc G. Low galactosylation of IgG associates with higher risk for future diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis during 10 years of follow-up. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis. 2018;1864(6 Pt A):2034–2039.

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8438737/ — Cvetko A, Mangino M, Tijardović M, Kifer D, Falchi M, Keser T, Perola M, Spector TD, Lauc G, Menni C, Gornik O. Plasma N-glycome shows continuous deterioration as the diagnosis of insulin resistance approaches. BMJ Open Diab Res Care. 2021;9:e002263.