Introduction to Glycoinformatics - lectures and practicals | SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

The videos of the lecture - parts 1 and 2 - are now on YouTube.

Overview

The word glycoprotein is often used yet the “glyco” part is hardly ever described. This is the case, for instance, with viruses in which surface spike proteins are abbreviated GP, numbered HIV GP120, but remain depicted as a smooth fist-like structure. In reality, glycan molecules decorate a broad variety of surface or secreted proteins and the literature is filled with unnoticed references focusing on the “glyco” part.

This course is an opportunity to update and extend your knowledge of glycoproteins through the use of bioinformatics resources collectively called “glycoinformatics”. We will provide an overview of the challenging questions raised by the study of glycans as non-template driven molecules and the solutions that are currently proposed to store, search, analyse and visualise the effect(s) of protein glycosylation on protein structure, function(s) and interactions. We will present several glycomics resources on Expasy, the Swiss Bioinformatics Portal, and review recent developments.

Audience

This course is targeting any life scientist, from academia or industry: biologists, biochemists, from master students to advanced researchers.

Learning objectives

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

give examples illustrating the importance of glycosylation
check for known glycans when studying glycoproteins
appreciate the notion of glycome
establish the relationship defined by glycans between glycoproteins and glycan-binding proteins

Prerequisites

Knowledge / competencies

This course is designed for beginners in glycoinformatics or glycomics.

Experience in using UniProt is required. Please view any of the following videos prior to the lecture depending on your interest so that any questions you have can be raised during the Q&A session following the recap at the beginning of the lecture:

Crash course in glycoscience (Introduction to glycoinformatics, 1/7) - Serge Perez tells you all you ever wanted to know about glycoscience and never dared ask.
Introduction to Glycoinformatics (1 of 4) - This lecture describes the glycoinformatics landscape - collaborative efforts world-wide in defining standards, modeling the data, resources, tools – and introduces the interacting resources of the Glyspace Alliance PMC6992953.
Introduction to Glycoinformatics (2 of 4) - This lecture introduces the topic of glycoproteomics and reviews the tools for understanding the corresponding data, with a particular focus on the GlyConnect platform.
Introduction to Glycoinformatics (3 of 4) - This lecture focuses on particular glycan datasets such as Sars-Cov2 glycans or human milk oligosaccharides.
Introduction to Glycoinformatics (4 of 4) - This lecture introduces the topic of glycan recognition and glycan-binding and reviews he tools for understanding the corresponding data, with a particular focus on the UniLectin platform.

Technical

This course will be streamed, you are thus required to have your own computer with an internet connection.

Application

Attendance is free-of-charge, however registration is mandatory (use the Apply button below).

There is no limit on the number of attendees. All those who have applied by May 25, 2022 will receive the information for remotely connecting to the lecture by email.

Venue and Time

These lecture will be streamed using Zoom. The lecture will start at 15:00 CET and end at 17:00 CET.

Precise information will be provided to the participants before the course.

Additional information

Coordination: Monique Zahn, SIB Training Group.

You are welcome to register to the SIB courses mailing list to be informed of all future courses and workshops, as well as all important deadlines using the form here.

SIB abides by the ELIXIR Code of Conduct. Participants of SIB courses are also required to abide by the same code.

For more information, please contact training@sib.swiss.