Oligosaccharides are thought to play essential roles in coding for the vast amount of information required in various biological recognition processes. For example, inside a cell, oligosaccharides promote the folding of proteins 1 and O-GlcNAc modification of nuclearcytoplasmic proteins initiates a dynamic signaling mechanism in concert with phosphoryation 2 . On the cell surface, they are the key surface molecules that communicate with neighboring molecules, constituting a dense information storage system. 3 This 'carbohydrate code' serves as recognition elements and thus also induces immunological responses to both bacterial and viral infections. 4,5 Abnormalities in oligosaccharide display are closely associated with several human diseases such as immune dysfunction6 and cancer 7 . Therefore, gaining insight into how carbohydrates function as recognition signals, and developing efficient ways to prevent undesirable interactions between carbohydrates and their protein signals are very important. Toward this end, the synthesis of oligosaccharides and the screening of their biological activities are often the first steps to be accomplished. However, the discrete synthesis and biological screening of individual oligosaccharides is extremely laborious. While combinatorial chemistry is well suited to the generation of a large number of chemicals (libraries) in a short time and has already seen successful application to the preparation of peptides, 8 oligonucleotides,9 and small organic molecules, 10 the application of such technology to the synthesis of oligosaccharide libraries is much more challenging due to the inherent chemical complexity of carbohydrates.Spurred by the recent explosion of interest in glycobiology, tremendous progress has been made in the synthesis of oligosaccharides through the development of new glycosyl donors 11 and advanced protecting group chemistry. 12 However, little work has been reported on the development of technology for the combinatorial synthesis of oligosaccharides. Kahne and coworkers used a protocol of splitting and mixing beads during the synthesis in combination with the use of chemical tagging at each combinatorial step. 13 By screening the library prepared in this combinatorial fashion against a flower lectin, they discovered new carbohydrate ligands with a higher affinity to the protein than the natural ligand. 13 On the other hand, a straightforward oligosaccharide library synthesis was reported by Kanie, et al., which involves an orthogonal glycosylation method on a polymeric support. 14 These methods use the solidphase technique which presents several limitations such as decreased glycosylation reaction © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Correspondence to: Eun Ju Kim. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is p...