Waters Instrumentation and Expertise to Assist with BTI’s
Glycoanalytics and Glycobiotechnology Research
MILFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 2017--
At a ceremony and symposium today, Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)
welcomed into its Centers
of Innovation Program the Bioprocessing
Technology Institute (BTI), a research institute under Singapore’s
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). BTI is the first
research institute1 focused on glycobiology to participate in
the Waters Centers of Innovation Program.
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In a ceremony today, Singapore’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute joined the Waters Centers of Innovation Program. On hand for the event were (l. to r.) Dr. Benjamin Seet, Executive Director, Biomedical Research Council, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore; Professor Kong Peng Lam, Executive Director, Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI); Eric Fotheringham, Senior Director – Waters Centers of Innovation Program; and Mathieu Laouenon, General Manager, South Asia, Waters Corporation. (Photo: Business Wire)
Glycans, or sugars, are one of the four fundamental classes of
macromolecules that comprise living systems. BTI’s glycan research is
aimed at finding novel cancer markers and elucidating glycosylation
pathways that could pave the way for new therapeutic strategies.
“I am delighted that BTI has been recognised by Waters for its expertise
in glycomics. Through this collaboration, BTI will be able to advance
cancer biomarker research and further cement Singapore’s position as a
key player in biologics,” said Professor Lam Kong-Peng, Executive
Director of BTI.
“This award also recognizes the importance of the integrated research
programmes that are fundamental to the success of BTI,” added Professor
Lam.
“It’s truly a pleasure to have BTI participate in our COI Program,” said
Dr. Mike Harrington, Senior Vice President, Global Markets for Waters
Corporation. “BTI’s research in glycobiology is world-class and we wish
to help it realize the enormous potential of this very important area of
science through the application of Waters analytical technologies and
expertise.”
In connection with today’s announcement, Waters Corporation is
supporting The
Next Frontier of Glycobiologics, a symposium featuring
keynote presentations from Professor
Raymond Dwek, Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford, United
Kingdom and from Professor
Nico Callewaert, VIB Medical Biotechnology Center, University of
Ghent, Belgium.
In 2016, Waters
and BTI announced a collaboration to develop a glycoconjugate
database and spectral library that would assist researchers using mass
spectrometry in identifying glycans in their samples. As part of this
collaboration, Waters is contributing scientific expertise and the use
of a Waters®SYNAPT®
G2-S High Definition Mass Spectrometry® System. The
instrument features ion mobility mass spectrometry technology that
rapidly separates molecular ions by not only their size and
mass-to-charge ratio, but by their shape. It also calculates a collisional
cross-section (CCS) value for each molecular ion. The ability to
identify glycans based on their CCS value reveals insights into their
unique chemical structure that provides a higher degree of specificity
than using just mass-to-charge ratio alone.
The glycoscience programme, headed by Professor Pauline Rudd and Dr.
Terry Nguyen-Khuong, Scientist of BTI, will further develop and apply
state-of-the-art technology to advanced bioprocessing and biologic
characterization, development and production.
The Importance of Glycans and the Need for Better Measurement Tools
Glycan research, like that being done at BTI, may promise to lead to
better understanding of diseases such as cardiovascular, neurological,
infectious, metabolic diseases and cancer through the identification of
disease biomarkers.
Opportunities in glycosciences have been assessed by committees of
scientists convened in the EU and US. In 2012 the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences released a report on glycoscience, its potential
and impediments to its progress. The report titled Transforming
Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future2 acknowledged
that glycoscience “is essential for understanding biology” and pointed
to the need for “tools to probe their often complex structures and
properties.” The report went on to state, “A suite of tools analogous to
those available for studying nucleic acids and proteins is needed to
detect, describe, and purify glycans from natural sources, and
characterize their chemical composition and structure. The development
of (such) tools for the detection, imaging, separation, and
high-resolution structure determination of carbohydrate structures and
complex mixtures should be a high priority for the National
Institutes of Health, the National
Science Foundation, the Department
of Energy, and the Food
and Drug Administration, and other relevant stakeholders.”
The report further stated the need for a glycan structure database for
understanding the structures and functions of glycans and highlighted
the role of liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and NMR
measurements for obtaining detailed structural information of
glycoconjugates, whether from a cell membrane or from a
biopharmaceutical.
About the A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI)
Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) is a member of the Agency for
Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Established in 1990 as the
Bioprocessing Technology Unit, it was renamed the Bioprocessing
Technology Institute (BTI) in 2003. The research institute’s mission is
to develop manpower capabilities and establish cutting-edge technologies
relevant to the bioprocessing community. Some of the key research areas
include expression engineering, animal cell technology, stem cell
research, microbial fermentation, downstream purification and analytics.
For more information on BTI, please visit https://www.a-star.edu.sg/bti/
About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)
Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) develops and manufactures advanced
analytical and material science technologies for laboratory dependent
organizations. For more than 50 years, the company has pioneered a
connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory information
management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis systems.
Waters, SYNAPT and High Definition Mass Spectrometry are trademarks of
Waters Corporation.
1. BTI is the second institution from Singapore to be recognized by
Waters Centers of Innovation Program. In 2011, the National
University of Singapore and Assistant Professor Ganesh Anand became
COI participants on the basis of their research into viral malaria and
dengue fever.
2. Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future, National Academy
of Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2012 http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Transforming-Glycoscience-Roadmap/13446
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Source: Waters Corporation
Waters Corporation
Brian J. Murphy, +1 508-482-2614
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brian_j_murphy@waters.com