The organic chemistry of carbohydrates (structure, conformational analysis, reactivity, protecting group manipulations, glycosylation strategies) will be discussed. The knowledge will be applied in the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides of biological importance, and the biological relevance of these structures will be introduced. Further topics in this course include the biosynthesis and metabolism of oligosaccharides and glycocojugates, how to interfere with these processes and some strategies to develop inhibitors to accomplish this.