Eleven Taiwanese researchers, including National Science Council (NSC) Minister Lee Lou-chuang and Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey, will take part in the Nov. 9-10 workshop with a group of 10 experts from Canada, headed by Canada's National Research Council (NRC) Vice President Roman Szumski.

As 90 percent of the human body is glycoprotein, and protein glycosylation is well known to have profound effects on the structure and function of proteins, glycoscience is rapidly emerging as an important scientific topic, Academia Sinica said in a press release.

For instance, it said, most infections caused by viruses and the spread of cancer are proven to be closely related to protein glycosylation — an important post-translational modification for protein molecules involved in cell membrane formation.

Therefore, glycoscience has become the key to exploring the roots of many diseases caused by abnormal glycosylation nowadays, it explained. The glycosylated proteins are mostly found in the blood serum. Being one of the components in the cell membrane, they are responsible for combining cells or even combining sperm and eggs.

The 21 experts will give speeches and present research papers focusing on two major themes -- “infectious disease diagnosis” and “synthesis and drug discovery” at the workshop, which was a brainchild of Wong when he attended the NSC-NRC Eminent Researcher Program in Canada in 2008.

Taiwan's NSC and Canada's NRC have maintained close exchanges after the two bodies inked a memorandum of understanding in 1997 to bolster bilateral collaboration.

In recent years, Wong has conducted intensive research concerning sugar molecules. Concrete results on his research should be helpful to related development and forge opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, according to the press release.