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Cellular surface proteins are often coated with camouflaging glycans. Quantitative descriptions of the structures and dynamics of protein surface glycans are challenging, not least because of their intrinsic compositional and conformational heterogeneity. An international research team led by Dr. Shang-Te Danny Hsu at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Dr. Mateusz Sikora (Max Planck Institute for Biophysics) and Dr. Cyril Hanus (Université Paris-Cité) present a computationally effective algorithm, GlycoSHIELD, for generating atomic glycoprotein models in minutes using personal computers that can reproduce structural features observed by cryo-EM, mass spectrometry and small-angle X-ray scattering. GlycoSHIELD enables quantitative analysis of the shielding effects, structural modulation and function implications of protein glycosylation. Dr Hsu is responsible for all the experimental work generated to validate and improve the computational algorithms jointly developed by Dr. Sikora and Dr Hanus. This research has been published on February 29, 2024 in Cell.