A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, Glycomics, features profiles of Ancora Pharmaceuticals Inc., Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc., Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Thios Pharmaceuticals Inc. Plus these selected Start-Ups across Health Care: AngioLink Corp., PhageTech Inc., Scion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Tensor Biosciences.

Sulfation is the process in which sulfate recovered by cells from the bloodstream is attached to target molecules, such as glycoproteins. Thios Pharmaceuticals, formed around its founders' sulfation research, believes these pathways will be fertile ground for identifying a new class of therapeutic targets.

By the mid 1990s, most of the early carbohydrate drug development companies were either defunct or had repositioned themselves. But academia continued to advance gycobiology analysis tools. Today, thanks to improved mass spec and bioinformatic methods, as well as newly-revealed structure-activity relationships, a new generation of glycomics companies has a chance to succeed where forebears failed.

In Vivo briefly summarizes the technologies of these recently founded companies: Amicus Therapeutics Inc., AxioMed Spine Corp., Piedmont Pharmaceuticals LLC, TheraNova LLC, Thios Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Zyentia Ltd.