The Lundbeck Foundation funds Next-Generation Glycan-Arrays at the Copenhagen Center for Glycomics

The Lundbeck Foundation has generously decided to fund development of a Next-Generation Cell-Based Glycan Array with a 3-yr grant of 10 mill. DKK to Copenhagen Center for Glycomics. The Cell-Based Glycan Array aims to display the complex human glycome – all glycan structures found on human cells – on the cell surfaces of a large library of genetically engineered isogenic cells. Glycan arrays are used analogous to DNA and protein arrays utilized to probe biological interactions with complex glycans.  The current state-of-the-art glycan arrays are based on hard to produce synthetic glycans printed on slides. Our aim now is to replace these with a self-renewable and sustainable cell-based array where glycans are displayed in the natural context of proteins and the cell membrane. This is made possible by the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technologies where massive combinatorial editing of the 200+ genes involved in glycan biosynthesis enable us to produce isogenic cells with display of different glycan structures. The Cell-based array will be offered as resource for the science community, and we expect that it will have great impact on biomedical science and design and development of glycoprotein drugs.