Metabolic Glycoengineering for Tumour Imaging

Under FoReCaST we will evaluate the impact of different glycans in the cancer cell behaviour.

It is known that cancer progression and invasion is mediated by altered expression of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the extracellular matrix. Under Metabolic Glycoengineering for Tumour Imaging, we are studying how GAGs and some of its chemical features (e.g. molecular weight) influence cancer cell behaviour. In addition, several glycans that act on the tumour surface have been identified as key mediators of tumour proliferation, invasion, haematogenous metastasis and angiogenesis. We are studying this altered expression of glycans and trying to correlate them with cancer cell behaviour.