EPNOE 2019: 6th International Polysaccharide Conference in Aveiro, Portugal, attended by Lea Hembach, Eva Regel, and Rita Weyer

Three of our doctoral candidates attended this year’s International Polysaccharides Conference in Portugal, organised by the European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence EPNOE in conjunction with the Cellulose and Renewable Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Cellulose Society of Japan (CSJ). This is a high-level conference, and so we are proud that we were invited to contribute two oral and one poster presentation to the scientific sessions. Lea Hembach was invited to present her work on the characterisation and biological role of a new chitin deacetylase of the human pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans as an oral presentation in the session on Biosynthesis and Biocatalytic Routes for Polysaccharide Synthesis and Modification. Eva Regel was invited to present her work on the development of a high-throughput screening method for a mutational library of chitosan hydrolases as an oral presentation in the Advanced Analytical Methods session. And Rita Weyer presented her work on engineering the subsite specificities of chitin deacetylases via site-directed mutagenesis as a poster. In spite of its broad title, this conference is strongly focused on cellulose, and it is typically dominated by chemists rather than biologists and biotechnologists. While this made our work appear a bit exotic, it also made for some interesting discussions. And next to bench-marking one’s own work in comparison to international top-quality research, broadening the horizon is one of the main goals in visiting international conferences. And that was certainly achieved.