• Introduction:

The GLYCO-N training network aims at training Doctoral Candidates (DCs) to acquire the skills to develop different innovative strategies to 1) understand the diversity and structural complexity of archaeal, microalgal and viral N-glycosylation and 2) harness this knowledge for new solutions in biomedicine and biotechnology.

Protein N-glycosylation, or the attachment of oligo- and polysaccharides at specific asparagine residues, is conserved throughout life, and is now observed even in the viral world. In contrast to most of eukaryotes, whose well-studied N-glycosylation machineries are relatively simple, archaea, microalgae, viruses and bacteria utilize a wide variety of monosaccharides to create a wealth of structurally diverse N-glycans. Because protein N-glycosylation occurs far downstream of protein synthesis the complexity and diversity in N-glycan structures are poorly understood. GLYCO-N program has the bold task to dissect the N-glycosylation pattern harbored by archaea, microalgae and viruses, because aware that any discovery hold promise to shed light in different areas, ranging from drug discovery (antimicrobials) to biotechnology (biologics, glycoprotein and glycoprocessing enzyme engineering for materials and life sciences).

The GLYCO-N network brings together a diverse group of glycobiology researchers with world-leading expertise in carbohydrate chemistry, microbiology, (bio)organic chemistry, computational and structural (glyco-)biology, bioinformatics and chemical biology. The GLYCO-N DCs will have their own individual project with one GLYCO-N expert and will, through research internships, be exposed to complementary Glycoscience.

The selected PhD candidates will experience an international and interdisciplinary training and participate in a series of scientific, technical and complementary skills training events, and secondments to other participating institutions. The position will allow the students to participate in an exciting multidisciplinary research and training programme, enhancing their career perspectives. 

• The Glyco-N Consortium

Beneficiaries

The following institutions will directly recruit the DCs:

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II (UNINA), NAPOLI, Italy, Department of Chemical Sciences, Prof. Antonio Molinaro (Coordinator of the GYCO-N project)

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN (UL), LEIDEN, Netherlands, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Prof. Hermen Overkleeft

ASOCIACION CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION COOPERATIVA EN BIOCIENCIAS (CIC bioGUNE), DERIO BIZCAYA, Spain, Prof. Prof. Jesús Jiménez-Barbero

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA (UB), BARCELONA, Spain, Department of Chemistry, Prof. Carme Rovira

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET (DTU), KONGENS LYNGBY, Denmark, Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Prof. Bernard Henrissat

UNIVERSITE DE ROUEN NORMANDIE (URN), MONT SAINT AIGNAN, France, Laboratory GlycoMEV, Prof. Muriel Bardor

UNIVERSITAET DUISBURG-ESSEN (UDE), ESSEN, Germany, Faculty of Chemistry, Prof Bettina Siebers and Prof. Markus Kaiser

Associated Partners with national fundings

The following institution will directly recruit the DCs:

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (UL), LONDON, UK, Chemistry, Dr. Benjamin Schuman

Associated Partners

The following Institutions and companies are part of the consortium and will contribute to training

activities, including secondments:

Atlas Molecular Pharma S.L. (AMP), Spain, Dr. Oscar Millet

Zelula Biopharma SL (ZB), Spain, Dr. Asís Palazón

Alga Biologics (AB), France, Dr. Catherine Gallot

Samabriva (SAM), France, Dr. Marina Guillet

Isuschem Srl (IC), Italy, Prof. Vincenzo Benessere

Universidad del Pais Vasco (UPV/EHU), Spain, Prof. Dr. Jesús Jiménez-Barbero

Innovation Acta Srl (INN-ACTA), Italy, Dr. Paola Cesaroni

• Research Projects: Applications must be sent by email to the contact specified under the list of each research project

Position

Project title

Host Institution

Reference tutor(s) for PhD application and email

DC1

N-glycosylation in the extremophile archaeae

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II, Italy

Prof. Antonio Molinaro; Prof. Cristina De Castro molinaro@unina.it; decastro@unina.it

DC2

Study of the glycosylation machinery of archaea: a new perspective to unravel the evolutionary history of the tree of life

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET, Denmark

Prof. Bernard Henrissat;

bernard.henrissat@gmail.com

DC3

Study of the function of glycosyltransferases in the crenarchaeal model organism Sulfolobus acidocaldarius to unravel their potential for biotechnological application

UNIVERSITAET DUISBURG-ESSEN, Germany

Prof Bettina Siebers; Bettina.siebers@uni-due.de

DC4

Structure and molecular recognition of viral N-glycoproteins

ASOCIACION CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION COOPERATIVA EN BIOCIENCIAS, Spain

Prof. Jesús Jiménez-Barbero; jjbarbero@cicbiogune.es

DC5

Designer molecules to interfere with host and viral N-glycosylation processing

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN, Netherland

Selection closed

DC6

Unraveling the xylosylation pathway of N-glycoproteins in microalgae

UNIVERSITE DE ROUEN NORMANDIE (France)

Prof. Muriel Bardor; muriel.bardor@univ-rouen.fr

Dr Elodie Rivet;

elodie.rivet@univ-rouen.fr

DC7

Modeling of mechanisms in wild type and engineered archaeal and microalgal glycoprocessing enzymes for the efficient synthesis of (neo)-glycans

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA, Spain

Prof. Carme Rovira; recruitment.roviralab@gmail.com

DC8

Inhibitors and activity-based probes targeting host and viral glycosyltransferases

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN, Netherland

Selection closed

DC9

Mining chlorovirus PBCV-1 genome to decipher the N-glycosylation biosynthetic pathway

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II, Italy

Prof. Cristina De Castro; Prof. Antonio Molinaro; decastro@unina.it; molinaro@unina.it

DC10

Development of chemical probes for studying N-glycosylation from bioactive metabolites

UNIVERSITAET DUISBURG-ESSEN, Germany

Prof. Markus Kaiser; markus.kaiser@uni-due.de

DC11

Unraveling how viral glycosylation machineries affect host glycoproteins

Imperial College London, UK

Dr. Benjamin Schumann; ben.schumann@crick.ac.uk

To apply, please also check the job position at:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-jobs/description/index.php?jobId=18419&jobTitle=Research+Assistant+in+Chemical+Glycobiology

Additional details on the individual research projects can be found at www.glyco-n.eu or directly asked by email to the reference tutors for the PhD application.