Glycodrugs are drugs that interfere with protein-carbohydrate interactions, which are involved in many vital biological processes. Our understanding of these interactions is improving each year but so far, only a handful of registered drugs originate from the glycoscience area. This is undeniably connected with the specific challenges of design and syntheses of carbohydrate-based molecules, and most of the progress in this field, especially in the initial phases of the glycodrug discovery, has been made by European academic institutions such as those present in the PhD4GlycoDrug consortium. The expertise for glycodrug discovery already exists throughout Europe, but is rather dispersed in various academic institutions and small drug discovery enterprises. To bridge this gap and to create a large force in the glycodrug development, we have designed a joint PhD training and research programme that involves all phases of the glycodrug design and development pipeline preceding in vivo studies and clinical trials. We have brought together a multidisciplinary PhD4GlycoDrug Consortium consisting of participants from different sectors and disciplines involved in glycodrug discovery: six departments from universities across Europe (UL, UU, UMIL, ULUND, UNIBAS and UGA) with world-class medicinal chemists, organic chemists, biochemists and pharmacologists working in the glycosciences as scientists-in-charge of the PhD4GlycoDrug Consortium, five SMEs (PamGene, Acies Bio, SARomics, Elicityl and RedGlead) run by top-level researchers with strong track records in drug and glycodrug design and development, and a research institute (CNRS) that pioneers the dissemination of scientific information in glycoscience with the Glycopedia initiative (
http://glycopedia.eu/(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)). PhD4GlycoDrug was a European Joint Doctorate, so accordingly the Consortium’s overarching aim was to establish a glycodrug discovery research and training platform that:
• to the best of our knowledge is currently not present in Europe,
• will start and perform innovative research projects on specific macromolecular targets that bind and/or modify carbohydrate ligands, involving all steps of early drug discovery,
• incorporates methodologies of modern drug design, target identification and validation, hit discovery, hit-to-lead and lead development focusing on physico-chemical and ADMET properties,
• uses specific glycochemistry tailored to glycodrug discovery specific needs, e.g. synthesis of metabolically stable glycosides, glycomimetics, multivalent glycodrugs and glycochips,
• will nourish basic glycoscience steps that are not covered by big pharmaceutical companies, and will allow big pharma to cherry-pick the most successful results,
• will join all individual research projects in a uniform training and research program across the network that covers the drug discovery pipeline from target identification to ADMET, as delineated in the Work Package list,
• will allow building a solid foundation for long-term European excellence in glycodrug discovery, also supported by the involvement of four European SMEs already active in the sector,
• will outlive the present project and allow a sustainable environment for the training of competent young researchers that will fuel future glycodrug discovery processes.
