About
EGC Objectives
- Establish a pan-European Glycoscience network
- Identify and solve scientific challenges through cross-sectorial collaborative engagement
- Implement the challenges highlighted in the Glyco 2030 roadmap and engage with policymakers to ensure future EU funding opportunities
- Engage with industry to translate fundamental science to products and services
- Engage with national Glycoscience research networks to establish Europe wide initiatives that support Glycoscience R&D
The European Glycoscience Community will build from the CarboMet project to facilitate engagement between key players and stakeholders in each Enabling Technology Area and BioIndustry Sector to ensure full engagement of the glycoscience community across Europe. A series of policy papers along with the Glyco 2030 roadmap was published to highlight the current state-of-the-art and the challenges and opportunities in Glycoscience R&D. To ensure we continue to engage and deliver the EGC objectives, six communities of practices (CoPs) have been launched. For more information please visit EGC Communities of Practice.
EGC Programme activities
- Webinars
- Meetings and workshops including training workshops in advanced technologies
- Knowledge transfer and industry engagement
- Funding opportunities
- Career development
ENABLING TECHNOLOGY AREAS
There are a number of challenges in technological, manufacturing and regulatory aspects of carbohydrates, in particular in 3 Enabling Technology Areas which need to be addressed to ensure full exploitation of the opportunities identified.
1. Measurements and Analytical
Techniques for quantitative, structural characterisation of carbohydrates thus ensuring technical specifications for manufacturing and regulatory requirements are met.
2. Synthesis of Standards
Defining the range of standards and reference materials required, and their specifications, will present major synthetic challenges in their production.
3. Bioinformatics and Databases
To provide reference data, to understand the complex activity structure relationships of carbohydrates and to act as viable alternative tools for in vitro testing.
BIOINDUSTRY SECTORS
These have been identified as of immediate interest for CarboMet where the exploitation of carbohydrates will have huge impact:
1. Biopharmaceuticals including vaccines, antimicrobials, antibodies and hormones
The number of pharmaceuticals based on glycans, glycan targets and glycosylated products is rapidly increasing both in number and market share. Products such as heparin, cyclodextrin, carbohydrate-based vaccines, and vancomycin have been on the market for a long time. Recent examples include Tamiflu and Relenza, which were developed to treat the ‘bird flu’ virus. With the advent of biopharmaceuticals such as human erythropoietin and therapeutic antibodies, glycoconjugates will continue to increase. As the degree of molecular complexity increases so does the range of analytical techniques required. Glycosylated biopharmaceuticals such as glycoproteins provide particular challenges in R&D and quality control during production. A positioning paper was published highlighting the challenges and opportunities of carbohydrate-based vaccines with a particular focus on antimicrobial resistance. Click here to download the briefing paper on AMR vaccine
2. Diagnosis of disease at a personal level for the development of precision medicines
All cells, including human cells, have carbohydrates on their surface, known as the glycocalyx. This coating of glycolipids and glycoproteins controls a variety of fundamental biological processes, for example fertilization, immunology and infection. The makeup of the glycocalyx is sensitive to genetic mutations, changes in gene activation or silencing, or environmental and personal habit factors such as diet, alcohol consumption or smoking. This makes the glycocalyx a useful target for personalised medicine, including finding new disease biomarkers for diseases such as cancer, and for patient stratification during clinical trials. Novel instrumentation that can rapidly and accurately measure individual patient’s condition in real time are needed. There are also opportunities to develop lower-cost and better targeted products for the diagnostics market. Our briefing paper can be downloaded here.
3. Healthy lifestyles from good food and personal care, including for healthy ageing
Sugars are important components of everyday foods and an understanding of polysaccharide production in plants is of the utmost importance for improved food security and production, including crop protection. The importance of sugars as dietary components and their nutritional value and potential in functional foods is becoming more and more apparent and they are increasingly being appreciated for their health giving effects for the benefit of society, reducing the burden on health services and improving quality of life. A positioning paper was published to highlight the importance of carbohydrates in human health and the glycometrology challenges to develop this area further. Please click here to download our briefing paper.
4. Carbohydrates as the sustainable materials for the future
The development of sustainable biorenewables will facilitate the move towards a more sustainable bio-based chemicals industry. Natural polysaccharides such as cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, chitin and xyloglucan all have properties that make them useful for a variety of industrial applications. Their modification (chemical, mechanical, biological) can further expand their properties and functionalities. New analytical tools are required to support the generation of highly-defined innovative bio-based materials. You can download our briefing paper here.
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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 737395. |