Marco Graça, MSc student at the Glyco Lab – Functional Glycobiology Research Lab, UCIBIO-NOVA, received the Best Poster Award at the 15th International Meeting of the Portuguese Carbohydrate Group (GLUPOR 15) and GLYCOTwinning 2025, held from 15 to 17 September 2025 in Coimbra.
His work, titled “Targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa Lectins: Assessing Arylamide Foldamers as Inhibitors of LecA and LecB”, is part of his MSc research, which focuses on characterising the interaction of newly synthesised glycoconjugated molecules with lectins involved in bacterial infection processes through glycan microarrays, X-ray crystallography, and other biophysical techniques. The project is supervised by Benedita Pinheiro (UCIBIO) and Pedro Mateus (ITQB). This recognition highlights UCIBIO’s contribution to developing solutions for antimicrobial resistance through the creation of novel antimicrobial drugs.
This year GLUPOR 15 joined with the International Network GLYCOTwinning: Building Networks to Excel in Glycoscience, brings together national and international experts in diverse areas of glycoscience, including biology, immunology, chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, material science, food science, medical science, and microbiology.