Young European and US researchers starting out their scientific careers were given the opportunity to present their research work and initiate collaborations with their peers at a workshop organised by Professor Paul Murphy and Dr Xiangming Zhu of the UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB).
The Modern Carbohydrate and Glycoconjugate Chemistry workshop, held in Malahide, Co Dublin in March 2007, was sponsored by CERC3, a group of senior research chemists whose aim is to promote scientific research in chemistry on a European level and enable better coordination and visibility of national research programmes in chemistry. Professor Frank Hegarty, UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is the Irish CERC3 representative.
Twenty seven scientists including researchers from UCD and NUI Maynooth gave presentations at the workshop. Carbohydrate and glycoconjugate chemistry is an emerging interdisciplinary field which is critical to the development of biology and medicine. Topics covered over the three days included biophysical methods applied to glycoscience, synthesis of enzyme inhibitors, therapeutics and vaccine development, the synthesis of tools for chemical biological studies and glycobiology.
“The discussions during the meeting were lively, a number of new collaborative projects are already underway and the young researchers are eager to meet again in two to three years,” commented Professor Murphy, organiser of the event.
As part of the three-day event the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) hosted a lecture by Professor Richard Schmidt, University of Konstanz entitled Glycoconjugates – Important Players in Molecular Recognition A Chemist’s Perspective. Professor Schmidt is currently a visiting professor at the CSCB and will be giving a series of lectures between April 2 and June 1, 2007.
For further information, contact:
Professor Paul Murphy (paul.v.murphy@ucd.ie)
UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
