Carbohydrates—the most abundant biological material on Earth—are the target of a new UK network designed to turn plant sugars into fuels, materials, medicines, and foods. The network, called IBCarb, brings together chemists, biologists, and engineers to tackle a central problem: how to analyse, synthesise, and modify carbohydrates for industrial use. This matters because the world needs to shift away from fossil fuels toward sustainable biotechnologies. Carbohydrates are already everywhere—in plant cell walls, food ingredients, and even biopharmaceuticals (eight of the ten top-selling drugs worldwide are glycoproteins). But the tools to manipulate them efficiently are still underdeveloped. The field has seen major advances in synthesis, enzymology, and analysis over the past two decades, yet these breakthroughs have not been coordinated into a coherent pipeline for industry. If IBCarb succeeds, it could accelerate the production of biorenewable materials, designer prebiotics for gut health, antimicrobials that target bacterial surface sugars, and enzymes that break down tough plant fibres for bioenergy. The network aims to connect academic discovery with commercial application, turning fundamental glycoscience into practical technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen both energy and food security.
View original technical description
Carbohydrates constitute the largest source of biomass on Earth and their exploitation for novel applications in biomaterials, energy, food and health will be critical in moving away from dependence on hydrocarbons to develop sustainable biotechnologies and reduce GHG emissions, ensuring both energy and food security. Glycoscience is a broad term used for all research and technology involving carbohydrates, ranging from cell biology, human nutrition and medicine to carbohydrate-based materials and the conversion of carbohydrates to energy. The analysis, synthesis and biosynthesis of carbohydrates and their modification to industrial products are, therefore, central challenges in both industrial biotechnology and bioenergy. The last twenty years have seen a number of fundamental changes in the Glycosciences generating a technology push with respect to carbohydrate synthesis and modification, enzymology and glycomic analysis. At the same time, there is a technology pull - great demand and opportunities in diverse areas such as biopharmaceuticals (8 out of 10 top selling drugs worldwide are glycoproteins), foods (prebiotics designed for the human gut microbiota), antimicrobials (targeting cell surface recognition and biosynthesis), materials (from biorenewable polysaccharides) or energy (digesting the indigestible). In a number of policy meetings the international Glycoscience community with leadership from a number of UK academics has identified an urgent need to form an interdisciplinary network, IBCarb, to allow for exploitation of opportunities presented by Glycoscience.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know