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 ^{[ citation needed ]}
• 2021 Royal Society of Chemistry Jeremy Knowles Award ^[1]
• 2025 American Chemical Society Melville L. Wolfram Award ^[12]
• 2025 The Emil Fischer Carbohydrate Award ^[13]

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.
• 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.
• Y.Y. Zhang, M. Ghirardello, R. Williams, A. Silva-Diaz, J. Rojo, J. Ramos-Soriano, J. Voglmeir, M.C. Galan "Microfluidics-based Ionic Catch and Release Oligosaccharide Synthesis (ICROS-microflow) to expedite glycosylation chemistry" Journal of the American Chemical Society Au (JACS Au) 2024, 4, 11, 4328–4333 doi : 10.1021/jacsau.4c00686

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. Archived from the original on 2021-01-13. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
11. "RSC Carbohydrate Chemistry Award". Royal Society of Chemistry. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
12. "2025 Melville L. Wolfrom Award Winner – Professor Carmen Galan – ACS Carbohydrate" . Retrieved 2025-06-10.
13. "The Emil Fischer Award – The 22nd European Carbohydrate Symposium in Gdansk" . Retrieved 2025-06-10.