The Carbohydrate Group represents RSC members who work in the area of carbohydrate chemistry, glycobiology and glycosciences more broadly. We organise annual events in the UK and Ireland, and awards promoting sugars and their applications across many fields. Our members’ interests span a diverse range of glycochemistry and glycobiology from carbohydrate synthesis to glycan analysis, chemical biology of biomacromolecules, energy to food science, therapeutics and sensors to inorganic and electrochemical tools. This is a highly interdisciplinary field where the exchange of knowledge, and sharing about tools and techniques enables progress. The Carbohydrate Group is one of the Royal Society of Chemistry's many Interest Groups. It is a member driven group that exists to benefit RSC members and the wider chemical science community, in line with the RSC's strategy and charter. We support members through travel bursaries, sponsorship of events, and prizes for early career researchers and leaders in the field. Please join the Interest Group via your RSC membership profile, or connect with us on LinkedIn for updates.
Studies of interactions between carbohydrates and proteins are vital in understanding the potential controls of many biological processes. Nature has invested much time in devising enzymes and receptors that are highly specific in their interactions with carbohydrates.
Polysaccharides from the agricultural industry are multi-million pound commercial products in many industrial and domestic areas and are set to gain further prominence as green fuel sources and neutraceuticals (health from diet).
Glycotechnology is leading to new products and understanding in biomedicine, firstly via mammalian glycoconjugates and secondly via non-mammalian glycoconjugates and polysaccharides which are potential pharmaceuticals and targets for drug design.
Orders of magnitude of structural information and diversity can more readily be carried in carbohydrates in comparison with peptides of the same molecular size. Understanding and achieving this structural diversity presents many compelling scientific challenges. Synthetic chemists develop processes to control selective reactions, while analytical scientists design techniques to unravel this complexity.
The group issues e-alerts which provides links to group events and other relevant information which may be of interest to you
This lecture deals with advances in any area of carbohydrate chemistry, and is delivered in alternate years during the Carbohydrate Chemistry Group's spring meeting.
This award, which is sponsored by Dextra Laboratories, is presented to a scientist in the early/mid stage of their career for meritorious work in carbohydrate chemistry that has largely been conducted in the UK.
Our group appreciates the outstanding efforts made by Early Career Researchers in the community. We have two prizes for Best Oral Presentation at our biannual conferences which are awarded to the early career researchers who show research excellence for their career stage. In addition to this, we also have a number of poster prizes at both events.
This is presented at the Spring/Summer meeting.
This is awarded at the Autumn/Winter meeting.
The Carbohydrate Group Committee would like to thank Biosynth for their long-standing sponsorship of early career researcher awards.
View forthcoming events organised by the Carbohydrate Group.
Please get in touch with the Networks Team if you would like to be sent a copy of last year’s annual report for the Carbohydrate Group.
RSC members can join this interest group by updating their details in the “Manage my interest groups” section of the online RSC membership area.
The committee members listed are responsible for designing programmes that will advance chemistry in the subject area, helping the RSC to meet its aims, engaging with and supporting our members.
We are always keen to welcome new members to the committee. When vacancies arise, we circulate a “Call for Committee”, where an email is sent to all members of the group to make them aware of new opportunities to join the committee.
It is important to have diverse representation on committees to consider the needs of our membership. All RSC members are welcome to stand for committee positions when vacancies are advertised.
For any queries about the interest group, please contact the Committee Secretary using the contact form, accessible via the button below.
Contact the Networks team with your queries.