European Training Course on Carbohydrates: Prof. Moerschbacher gave his last external lecture as a full professor in Groningen, NL

This week, Prof. Moerschbacher was invited again to give a general lecture on “Chitins and Chitosans – Analysis and Applications” at the famous European Glycosciences Summer School which was organized this year in Groningen, the Netherlands. This is a week-long summer school attracting every other year around 70-80 mostly doctoral and post-doctoral young researchers pursuing projects in glyco-chemistry or glyco-biology. Importantly, the event also always attracts attendees from (mostly food) industry who pay higher fees, which in turn allows the organizer to invite expert speakers on different topics of glycosciences from all over Europe. Prof. Moerschbacher was proud to be invited again. He presented an overview of the work of our group over the past thirty (!) years, focusing on the development of ever more sensitive and more revealing analytical techniques aiming to elucidate molecular structure-function relationships of chitosans. At the end of his scientific career, he was happy to be able to announce that some of the former doctoral and post-doctoral candidates of our group have already founded or are currently founding start-up companies to translate our research findings into the real world of agricultural plant biostimulants and biopesticides. As always, the Course was an excellent opportunity for exchange and networking between young and established researchers, and between scientists from Academia and Industry. Win-win-win!