Biological Roles of Sialic Acid

There is a startling amount of research activity concerning the role of sialic acid in mammalian cells and in the mammalian organism. One may discern in the early literature premonitions of compounds containing sialic acid, traceable by descriptions of color reactions, as far back as the turn of the century. Work spanning the 1930s to the 1950s culmi­ nated in the crystallization of sialic acid fr...