In the bioinformatics field, many computer algorithmic and data mining 
technologies have been developed for gene prediction, protein-protein 
interaction analysis, sequence analysis, and protein folding predictions, to 
name a few. This kind of research has branched off from the genomics field, 
creating the transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics research 
areas in the postgenomic age. In the glycomics field, given the complexity of 
glycan structures with their branches of monosaccharides in various 
conformations, new data mining and algorithmic methods have been developed in an 
attempt to gain a better understanding of glycans. However, these methods have 
not all been implemented as tools such that the glycobiology community may 
utilize them in their research. Thus, we have developed RINGS (Resource for 
INformatics of Glycomes at Soka) as a freely available Web resource for 
glycobiologists to analyze their data using the latest data mining and 
algorithmic techniques. It provides a number of tools including a 2D glycan 
drawing and querying interface called DrawRINGS, a Glycan Pathway Predictor 
(GPP) tool for dynamically computing the N-glycan biosynthesis pathway from a 
given glycan structure, and data mining tools Glycan Miner Tool and Profile 
PSTMM. These tools and other utilities provided by RINGS will be described. The 
URL for RINGS is http://rings.t.soka.ac.jp/.