GlycoScience Ireland Launched

Apr 30, 2008

The newly formed GlycoScience Ireland was recently launched in the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin. The aim of GlycoScience Ireland is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between glycoscientists, biologists, chemists, engineers, information scientists and clinicians, facilitating the exploration of novel glycoscience approaches in research.

Commenting on the significance of the initiative,  the co-organiser of the launch and TCD’s Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience, Dr Gavin Davey said:“ GlycoScience Ireland will  provide a forum for communication and interaction between Irish glycoscientists and industry representatives in Ireland  as well as internationally, enabling the translation of glycoscience discoveries into commercial realities”.

Every cell is covered with complex sugars called glycans and approximately 60% of naturally occurring proteins are glycosylated. Recent analytical developments have revealed the crucial role played by glycans in almost every essential biological process, reproduction, signalling, cell differentiation, immunity, and diseases such as cancer, inflammation and microbial infections. Many new biopharmaceuticals are also  glycoproteins or have glycoprotein targets.

The launch organisers  Dr Gavin Davey (TCD), Professor Pauline Rudd (NIBRT) and Professor Lokesh Joshi (NUIG) merged researchers from academia and industry who presented talks ranging from glycosylation in relation to human disease to glycosylation and recombinant biotherapeutics production.

The Provost of TCD,  Dr John Hegarty, and the Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, Professor Frank Gannon commenced the day's proceedings which   was followed by a series of talks, including  key note speaker, Professor Raymond Dwek (Oxford) who gave a detailed description of how novel agents that interact with the glycosylation process are being used in the battle against HIV and Hepatitis C.

For further details on GlycoScience Ireland consult: http://www.GlycoScienceIreland.ie