Center for Glycocalyx Research (CGR)

The overarching aim of CGR is to understand how cells respond to different types of cellular stress. Our focus is the cell surface, which, with its complex layer of glycans and proteins, both protects and provides stability, while simultanously integrating signals from neighboring cells and the surrounding environment.

CGR is an interdisciplinary research center, where we are united by the common goal of investigating how the composition and appearance of cell surfaces are shaped by cellular signals and stress arising from infections, metabolic imbalance, and age-related change. Although recent years have brought major advances in understanding how stress and disease affect the genome and the cell interior, our knowledge remains limited regarding how conditions such as inflammation and degenerative disorders reprogram the composition and organization of cell-surface proteins. We aim to change this and use the resulting insights to develop targeted therapies.

Together, using complementary approaches, we will map how cellular stress and disease reshape the complex layer of surface glycans and proteins and determine how these disease-specific changes influence cell behavior. We will also define the underlying mechanisms and, ultimately, translate this knowledge into targeted therapies for chronic inflammatory and degenerative diseases.

CGR is anchored at the University of Copenhagen in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, the School of Dentistry, and Jesper Velgaard Olsen’s group at the Center for Protein Research. The center is built on strong international collaborations and driven by the ambition to create a new mechanistic understanding of disease that can lead to more precise diagnostics and treatments for major disease groups.