Parkinson’s Disease is a neurodegenerative condition characterised by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra[1], for which only symptomatic therapies are available. Collagen hydrogels have shown potential as a vehicle for delivery of cells into the brain and their therapeutic potential can be expanded by functionalising it to address, for example, the glycosylation patterns altered with Parkinson’s. The goal of this project is to develop and optimise a carbohydrate-functionalised collagen-based microgel that will encapsulate and modulate the differentiation and sugar expression of ventral mesencephalic cells, to mimic the healthy brain glyco-environment. In this study, maltose and lactose were conjugated to collagen through a reductive amination reaction and the compounds were chemically and biologically characterised. The functionalisation has a yield of 50% which allows the remaining free amines to be crosslinked by 4S-StarPEG. At the cellular level, the conjugates did not elicit any toxic response, and the ones conjugated with maltose downregulated the astrocytic expression for up to two weeks. Also, fucosylation was decreased two-fold and sialylation increased in this group. These results suggest the influence of the conjugates on the cellular sugar expression and thus have potential applications as modulators of cell delivery systems in the brain.