IQS Sponsors the First Biomedical Glycoscience Summer School

This June, the inaugural edition of the Biomedical Glycoscience Summer School was held at the University Residence of Jaca. It was organized by the Specialized Carbohydrates Group with the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), which is currently led by Dr Antoni Planas Sauter with the IQS School of Engineering, who is also the coordinator of the Biological and Biotechnological Chemistry Group (GQBB) at IQS.

IQS sponsored this first edition of the Summer School, which was an incredibly successful encounter in which 41 doctoral students, postdocs, and researchers in the field of glycosciences participated. Leading international researchers, all of whom are experts in different fields related to this area of knowledge, also attended the Summer School. In addition to Dr Antoni Planas, attendees at this inaugural edition also included Dr Jesús Jiménez-Barbero, with CICbioGune of Bilbao; Dr Silvia Millán-Martin, with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research & Training of Dublin; Dr Franck Fieschi, with the Université Grenoble Alpes of France; Dr Niels Reichardt, with the CICbiomaGUNE of San Sebastian; Dr Daniel Varon Silva, with the FHNW of Basel, Switzerland; Dr Xevi Biarnés, with IQS – Ramon Llull University of Barcelona; Dr Francisco Corzana, with the University of La Rioja – Logroño; Dr Celso Reis, with the University of Porto, Portugal; Dr Paula Videira, with the Universidade NOVA of Lisbon, Portugal; and Dr Roberto Adamo, with GSK, Sienna, Italy.

For three days, attendees were able to take an in-depth look at concepts, applications, and recent advances in these fields of research through various theme-based sessions both to give them general education as well as to inspire them in possible applications for their own projects.

Some of the areas that were covered included:

• Advanced analytical tools for the characterization of glycans and protein-carbohydrate interactions (NMR methodologies, mass spectrometry technologies, and biophysical methods to study these interactions).
• Design and synthesis of glycans and glycoconjugates and multivalent systems.
• Bioinformatics and modelling tools for protein-carbohydrate complexes.
• The role of glycans in oncology and immunology.

During the event, students presented different posters and the lecturers moderated theme-based discussion sessions.

In the words of Dr Antoni Planas, “this first edition of the Summer School has been a real success and we are extremely satisfied. The presentations by the speakers were veritable master classes and were really participatory with significant interaction between the attendees and the speakers.”