Building Networks to Excel in Glycoscience

A capacity-building network with the ambitious goal to provide a breakthrough in the research of UCIBIO-NovaFCT

Project

Project

GLYCOTwinning is a capacity-building network with the ambitious goal to provide a breakthrough in the research of the Applied Biomolecular Sciences Unit, NOVA University Lisbon (UCIBIO-NOVA), from chemistry to microbiology, immunology and biomedicine. To achieve excellence, UCIBIO-NOVA needs further synergies, to be acquired through networking with topclass partners: Imperial College, LUMC and CICbioGUNE.

Objectives

Promote scientific excellence and innovation in Glycoscience;
Empower researchers’ capacity and creativity;
Strengthen research management and administration skills;
Raise dissemination activities;
Boost reputation, research profile and attractiveness.

Science

GLYCOTwinning brings synergy and multidisciplinarity in cutting-edge scientific methodologies: glycan microarrays, advanced electrophoresis, High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, to decode sugar recognition by glycan-binding proteins involved in disease.

Through GLYCOTwinning, UCIBIO-NOVA will reinforce its research capacity, expanding its current R&D+I profile to dissect glycan-protein interactions, from the atomic and molecular levels to the cellular context, boosting the development of innovative glycan-based tools, diagnosis, and therapies.

Furthermore, GLYCOTwinning will integrate its objectives in a project that explores glycan-protein interactions of the human microbiome in colorectal cancer, validating a GLYCOTwinning ToolBox, creating new knowledge, innovation and opening new research avenues for the widest dissemination and exploitation, with long term scientific and societal impact.