The Radboud Consortium for Glycoscience

4 July 2019

The Radboud University Medical Center and Faculty of Science announce the Radboud Consortium for Glycoscience (RCG). After the genome and proteome, the glycome offers a novel perspective to understand human disease biology. Glycoscience also plays a central role in biomass conversion, food and pharma industries. Via a 220.000 euro interfaculty grant, researchers from Radboud University will combine their multidisciplinary knowledge to develop educational programs and unclose research facilities and expertise in the field of Glycoscience.

Carbohydrates are the most abundant biomolecules on earth and play a central role in biomass conversion, food and pharma industries. Glycans are composed of monosaccharides and occur ubiquitously in all organisms. Glycosylation is the process by which proteins are modified with different glycans. Although the biological language of our DNA and proteins is already well understood, this is certainly not the case for protein glycosylation. Glycoscience combines these novel fields of research and will significantly impact a broad range of research topics, ranging from evolutionary biology to food, biomass, and personalized medicine. To grasp the full potential of Glycoscience, novel technologies for their synthesis and analysis are needed. 

Groups within Radboud University have strongly contributed to the international development of the field of Glycoscience with novel synthetic and biological concepts, advanced characterization methods, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases and novel functions for glycans in infectiology and oncology. A multidisciplinary approach is essential to significantly progress in this novel field. The Radboud Consortium for Glycoscience aims to advance these initiatives and to  bring scientists together to stimulate new collaborations and developments in Glycoscience. The RCG will develop a teaching program on Glycoscience, will provide a platform for researchers to discuss their Glycoscience related research questions and will develop novel analytical and synthetic methodology for use in new research projects.  

More information: link or send an email to: rcglyco@science.ru.nl