Diagnostic testing company BloodCenter of Wisconsin said on Friday that it expects to receive approximately USD20m from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to launch a new national Career and Development Consortium for Excellence in Glycosciences.

However, BloodCenter of Wisconsin is among four academic and research centres that will receive approximately USD20m over the next five years from NIH.

Over the next five years, BloodCenter of Wisconsin's Blood Research Institute will receive about USD5m for its own Programme for Career Development in Glycosciences. Glycosciences is the study of complex carbohydrate molecules and their roles in human development, health and disease. Mounting evidence suggests glycans play an important role in human development, health and disease, and should be taken into account when new therapeutics are designed and tested, the company added.

The BloodCenter of Wisconsin programme will recruit and train more than 12 early career glycoscientists over the next five years, with a focus dedicated to recruiting clinician scientists into this programme. Trainees will have access to leading-edge glycan research technologies at each of the participating institutions.

In conjunction with the progaremme, Karin Hoffmeister, MD, who is the senior investigator at BloodCenter of Wisconsin Blood Research Institute, the director of the Translational Glycomics Center at Blood Research Institute and professor of Biochemistry at the Medical College of Wisconsin, will lead the cross-disciplinary Career Development in Glycosciences programme.