Carbohydrates are nature’s most abundant and versatile molecules and are involved in several diseases (e.g. diabetes, infection, and cancer metastasis) and other regular processes (e.g. fertilization, immune surveillance and inflammatory responses). Understanding, monitoring and intervening in these processes could be exploited in medicinal therapies, glycobiology, and biomedical research in general. Such applications are predicated on the availability of carbohydrate binding molecules (CBMs) that can selectively and supramolecularly (noncovalently) bind a plethora of carbohydrate molecules ranging from simple monosaccharides to complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates. Technologies that can be developed based on CBMs include: the separation and isolation of carbohydrate containing molecules; making carbohydrate sensing and detection devices; enabling selective chemistry on (unprotected) carbohydrates; and a range of bio-functional applications. While the expertise to design, synthesize, study and exploit CBMs is mostly European, the research groups active in this emerging field work independent from each other. With this doctoral network grant, we aim to unite this expertise in the ‘European Network for the Supramolecular Chemistry of Carbohydrates’ (ENSCC). With most of the world’s leading minds on the topic and three companies that are spearheading technologies in the field, our ENSCC will be a European powerhouse that will lead the academic field globally for years to come. This will be achieved by sharing expertise, key-infrastructure, molecular building blocks, and –most importantly– by together training the ten PhDs that this doctoral network grant will fund. This training by a unique network of world-leaders, experts in the field and companies with an interest in CBMs will perfectly position our PhD students to further develop the field by continuing their career in academia and/or industry.

GLYTUNES is a multidisciplinary European Training Network on glyco-immune checkpoints built to address the main priorities of the National and European research council regarding the use of innovative methodological, interdisciplinary approaches for the treatment of human diseases. The GLYTUNES program is based on high-level multidisciplinary and multisectoral training to i) understand at the molecular and dynamic level how (aberrant) interactions between the immunomodulatory receptors Siglecs and their sialylated cognate ligands contribute to the etiology of immune-related diseases (infectious, and cancer diseases), ii) how to tune this axis to provide new therapeutic approaches for the rational design and development of glycomimetics targeting the Siglec glyco-immune checkpoints. To achieve this aim, an interdisciplinary, intersectoral, international European-based training programme within an outstanding collaborative research environment has been established, guided by leaders in their respective fields of research and in close association with industrial partners. GLYTUNES involves 7 academic partners and 4 companies (SMEs) from 7 European countries, combining world-class expertise in carbohydrate chemical and structural biology, drug design and computational chemistry, synthetic and medicinal chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, glycoimmunology and molecular and medical microbiology. GLYTUNES will train 14 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in a highly integrated and collaborative environment, underpinned by extensive interactions between academic and industrial partners and by their experience in higher education, training and mentoring, and endowed with state-of-the art scientific and technical expertise and infrastructures. The ESRs will thus acquire scientific and transferable skills to make them highly competitive and new leaders in top EU academia and research institutions, healthcare and biotech job markets.