The complex sulfation motifs of heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans (HS GAGs) play critical roles in many important biological processes. However, an understanding of their specific functions has been hampered by an inability to synthesize large numbers of diverse, yet defined, HS structures. Herein, we describe a new approach to access the four core disaccharides required for HS/heparin oligosaccharide assembly from natural polysaccharides. The use of disaccharides rather than monosaccharides as minimal precursors greatly accelerates the synthesis of HS GAGs, providing key disaccharide and tetrasaccharide intermediates in about half the number of steps compared to traditional strategies. Rapid access to such versatile intermediates will enable the generation of comprehensive libraries of sulfated oligosaccharides for unlocking the “sulfation code” and understanding the roles of specific GAG structures in physiology and disease.

The complex sulfation motifs of heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans (HS GAGs) play critical roles in many important biological processes.However,anunderstanding of their specific functions has been hampered by an inability to synthesize large numbers of diverse,yet defined, HS structures. Herein, we describe an ew approach to access the four core disaccharides required for HS/heparin oligosaccharide assembly from natural polysaccharides.T he use of disaccharides rather than monosaccharides as minimal precursors greatly accelerates the synthesis of HS GAGs,p roviding key disaccharide and tetrasaccharide intermediates in about half the number of steps compared to traditional strategies.R apid access to such versatile intermediates will enable the generation of comprehensive libraries of sulfated oligosaccharides for unlocking the "sulfation code" and understanding the roles of specific GAGs tructures in physiology and disease.