Dr Nuria Martinez Saez wins Young Researcher Award 2018

The 2018 International Carbohydrate Organization is delighted to announce that the Young Researcher Award for 2018 has been awarded to Dr Nuria Martinez Saez, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Throughout her career, Dr Martínez Sáez has used chemical synthesis to help understand problems in the field of glycobiology. In her PhD studies, she developed methods to synthesize unnatural glycopeptides enabling the exploration of how their three-dimensional structures affect their molecular recognition by the immune system. Highlights of this work include the determination of the X-ray structure of a MUC1 glycopeptide bound to an anti-MUC1 antibody, revealing the key role of the carbohydrate in the recognition process; and the construction of a MUC1-based three-component vaccine that elicited immune responses in mice. In post-doctoral work at Cambridge she developed new protein conjugation technologies including methods exploiting oxetanes and sulfonyl acrylates, with particular highlights including the development of high-site-selective methods for disulfide and lysine modification. Her present work at Utrecht involves the design of glycoconjugate vaccines with improved antimicrobial activity.

The Award is recognized with a plaque, an invitation to present at the upcoming International Carbohydrate Symposium (ICS), Lisbon, Portugal from July 15 to 19, 2018.

About the Young researcher Award:

The award is given every two years to a researcher who is 35 years old or younger as of the starting date of the next International Carbohydrate Symposium meeting, which is also held every two years.

Dr Martinez Saez wins 2018 ICO Young Researcher Award