A cell-specific metabolic glycan labeling strategy has been developed using azidosugars encapsulated in ligand-targeted liposomes. The ligands are designed to bind specific cell-surface receptors that are only expressed or up-regulated in target cells, which mediates the intracellular delivery of azidosugars. The delivered azidosugars are metabolically incorporated into cell-surface glycans, which are then imaged via a bioorthogonal reaction.