Glycosylation research is now emerging as a major scientific challenge, providing a competitive advantage in health applications such as diagnostics, drug discovery and improvement in diverse fields including immunology, oncology, infectious, genetic and aquatic diseases, etc. Indeed, it is now recognised that dysregulation of glycan synthesis or metabolism in general is associated with a wide range of diseases and symptoms. From a therapeutic point of view, 2/3 of recombinantly produced biomedicines, including all recombinant antibodies currently on the market, are glycoproteins, and the impact of glycosylation on the efficacy and immunogenicity of a biomedicine is a major issue that may compromise its therapeutic use. Glycans of proteins affect their activity, half-life, pharmacokinetics, clearance, but can also have undesirable immunogenic effects. FDespite its recognised importance in biomedicine, the study of glycans is often underestimated because the basic concepts of glycobiology are not well understood by scientists and clinicians, and the expertise is limited to a few specialised laboratories.
The INSERM has setup an international workshop to provide participants with knowledge and know-how in glycobiology associated to
i) identification and structural analysis of glycans, glycoproteins and glycolipids isolated from patients;
ii) identification at the gene and protein levels of the defects of glycosylation enzymes and the corresponding pathways that are dysregulated in diseases;
iii) development of probes for life imagingspecifically directed towards the identification of glycosylation modifications;
iv) study of the structure-function relations of microoranisms’ glycans involved in pathogenicity. By design, this workshop aims to maximize interactions between experts in the fields and attendees through seminars, round table discussions and poster sessions.
The event will take place on 12-14 of November in Bordeaux (France) and is open to anyone, non-INSERM and non-french people as scientific language of the event is english.