M. Carmen Galan

Maria del Carmen Galan Hurtado
Alma mater	University of Georgia University of Alicante
Scientific career
Institutions	Scripps Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Bristol
Thesis	Conformationally constrained oligosaccharides as probes for carbohydrate-protein interactions (2002)
Website	Galan Research Group

M. Carmen Galan is a Spanish chemist and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. Her research considers bioinspired probes for the targeting and regulation of cellular processes. She was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Jeremy Knowles Award in 2021.

Early life and education

Galan was born in Spain. She has said that she became interested in science as a child, and fascinated by medicine whilst at high school.[1] She earned a Licenciatura in chemistry at the University of Alicante.[2] Galan was a doctoral researcher in the University of Georgia, where she worked with Geert-Jan Boons on carbohydrates. Her doctorate involved the use of conformationally constructed N-acetyl lactosamine derivatives.[3] After graduating she moved to the Scripps Research Institute, working in the laboratory of Chi-Huey Wong.[4] She spent two years at the Scripps before moving to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she joined the group of Sarah O'Connor and worked on natural product synthesis.[5]

Research and career

In 2006 Galan returned to the United Kingdom, where she joined the University of Bristol as a lecturer in chemistry. Her research considers carbohydrate synthesis, glycan-based nanomaterials and oligosaccharides. An understanding of glycan-based structures and their interactions is expected to help with the design and development of therapeutic tools.[6][7]

Galan was named editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Carbohydrate Research in 2017.[8]

Awards and honours

• 2008 Wellcome Trust Value in People Award[9]
• 2008 Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship[6]
• 2011 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Career Acceleration Fellowship[6]
• 2015 European Research Council Consolidator Investigator[10]
• 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry and Dextra Carbohydrate Chemistry Award[11]
• 2021 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Jeremy Knowles Award[1]
• 2025 American Chemical Society Melville L. Wolfram Award

Select publications

• M Carmen Galan; David Benito-Alifonso; Gregory M Watt (16 March 2011). "Carbohydrate chemistry in drug discovery". Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. 9 (10): 3598–3610. doi:10.1039/C0OB01017K. ISSN 1477-0520. PMID 21409288. Wikidata Q37853437.
• Carlos Gomez-Martin; Jose Carlos Plaza; Roberto Pazo-Cid; et al. (14 October 2013). "Level of HER2 gene amplification predicts response and overall survival in HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer treated with trastuzumab". Journal of Clinical Oncology. 31 (35): 4445–4452. doi:10.1200/JCO.2013.48.9070. ISSN 0732-183X. PMID 24127447. Wikidata Q54402875.
• Edward I Balmond; Diane M Coe; M. Carmen Galan; Eoghan Mcgarrigle (9 August 2012). "α-Selective organocatalytic synthesis of 2-deoxygalactosides". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 51 (36): 9152–9155. doi:10.1002/ANIE.201204505. ISSN 1433-7851. PMID 22887611. Wikidata Q62603825.

References

1. "Professor Carmen Galan | 2021 Chemistry Biology Interface Division mid-career Award: Jeremy Knowles Award winner". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
2. Bristol, University of. "Professor Carmen Galan". www.bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
3. Galan Hurtado, Maria del Carmen (2002). Conformationally constrained oligosaccharides as probes for carbohydrate-protein interactions. OCLC 53060274.
4. "Professor M. Carmen Galan, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol". Imperial College London. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
5. "Alumni". web.mit.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
6. "Research Fellowships | School of Chemistry | University of Bristol". University of Bristol. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
7. "Research". Galan Research Group. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
8. "M. Carmen Galan". Elsevier. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
9. "Dr. M. Carmen Galan - AcademiaNet". www.academia-net.org. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
10. "ERC FUNDED PROJECTS". ERC: European Research Council. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
11. "RSC Carbohydrate Chemistry Award". Royal Society of Chemistry. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 2021-06-08.