About the Workshop

Developmental biology is an area of intense interest and research activity. Understanding the processes by which cells form organs and how these processes may be regulated offer prospects for tissue regeneration or growing new organs from stem cells.

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Themes

Recent Advances in Glycoscience – particularly those which relate to technology and structural studies which are particularly applicable to studies in Developmental and Evolutionary biology

How Glycosylation Affects Development – A view of those process which have been identified and studies on genetic disorders of glycosylation where development is affected.

Studies on the Significance of Glycosylation in Evolutionary Biology – comparative studies of glycosylation in different species and the possible implication of changes. in glycosylation patterns for the species

It has been recognised for some time that congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) lead to numerous and diverse problems in tissue and neural development, suggesting and important role for glycosylation. Further investigations have now identified some key developmental regulatory genes as being involved with glycosylation. Changes in glycosylation have also been identified in evolutionary process particularly in the development of the human brain. The major theme of this workshop is therefore to review the rapidly expanding topic of the role of glycoscience in developmental and evolutionary biology.

To accomplish this workshop will bring together scientists from the fields of developmental and evolutionary biology with those who specialise in all aspects of the glycosciences. It is intended to invite key speakers who have been responsible for the recent findings which have highlighted the involvement of glycoscience in important steps in development and in evolution. As this is a rapidly expanding area another important aspect of the workshop will be to allow research students with interests in this area to interact with leading workers and others from groups who are actively working in this area. The workshop will be organised around the major themes given above.

The objectives of the workshop will be:
	To see what impact glycosylation has in development and evolution
	To promote new research activities by bringing together scientists from different fields
	To discuss a concerted program of applied research in glycoscience in relaion to development and evolution
	To encourage more young scientists to take up research in this area

The proceedings of the workshop will be published both in a conventional form also electronically and it is hoped to establish a forum to bring together all those with an interest in this area.

There has been a growing recognition of the role and importance of glycoscience . A totally unexpected finding was that some of the key genes identified in developmental biology which are common to many species are in fact glycosyltransferases . This prompted increased interest in glycoscience and interaction of developmental biologists with glycoscientists as in the identification of the ‘notch’ gene. Furthermore key roles in brain development has been assigned to a class of glycans known as polysialic acids and this is an area of great interest In the field of evolutionary glycobiology some glycans which are present in only some species prompted investigation of their role . Some changes such as the loss of expression of the gene for synthesis of a type of sialic acid (N-glycoyl neuraminic acid) seems to correlate with the rapid increase in brain development between the great apes and man

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About the Workshop