Organizations Partner to Enhance the Development of Analytical
Methods and Glycan Libraries for Cancer Glycobiology, Focusing on
Glycosphingolipids
MILFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 21, 2016--
Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) today announced a joint effort with the Bioprocessing
Technology Institute (BTI), a research institute within Singapore'sAgency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), to develop new
methods of finding cancer markers and elucidating glycosylation pathways
that could pave the way for new therapeutic strategies.
As part of the research collaboration, Waters and BTI will develop a
glycosphingolipid (GSL) head group database containing glucose unit (GU)
retention times1 and collision cross-section (CCS) values in
an effort to compile an experimental library for disease-related GSL
glycans together with a glycan/MS spectral library.
GSLs are highly complex structures in which glycan head groups are
attached to fatty acyl moieties. Analyzing their molecular composition
involves detailing the sequence, anomericity, branching, and linkage
positions of the oligosaccharides as well as their fatty acyl motifs.
GSLs are critical for cell growth, interaction, and signaling and
alterations to their structure may result in diseases or promote the
development of different types of cancer. The analysis of the glycan
head groups poses a particular analytical challenge for glycoscience
because isomeric structures are not easily differentiated by either
liquid chromatography (LC) or mass spectrometry (MS) technologies when
used alone.
“Collaborating with Waters will enable BTI to apply its expertise in
glycomics to develop analytical methods and a library of information on
GSLs that doesn’t yet exist today. This will allow us to probe for
potential clinical markers and to provide insights into disease
progression and regression following therapeutic intervention. We
anticipate our science will advance human health while at the same time
address some of the needs of the biopharmaceutical industry,” said
scientific lead Dr. Susanto Woen, Research Scientist, BTI. “The
partnership also allows us to be part of an international glycomics
research network pioneering technologies required to determine the
potential association between GSL glycosylation and any
phenotypic/genotypic traits in disease or disease states.”
“By taking our partnership to a new level, we will empower BTI to
further develop novel analytical methods and establish a comprehensive
experimental glycan spectral library for cancer glycobiology focusing on
glycosphingolipids. Together, we want to advance methods to study GSL
glycosylation in cancer classification and biomarker discovery,” said
Dr. Jose Castro-Perez, Director – Health Sciences Marketing, Waters
Corporation.
As part of this collaboration, Waters will be 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 as well. A collisional
cross-section (CCS) value is a precise physicochemical property of an
ion related to its size, shape, and charge in the gas phase. The ability
to determine the separation of molecules based on a CCS value for each
glycan head group reveals insights into their unique chemical structure,
which in turn can be used as an additional descriptor for the GSL in
question, thus providing a higher degree of specificity than using just
mass-to-charge ratio alone.
First established in 2014, Waters’ collaborative relationship with BTI
initially focused on evaluating the performance of a new N-linked glycan
label aimed at biopharmaceutical applications, the GlycoWorks™
RapiFluor-MS™ Glycan Kit, and its complete workflow – from
sample preparation to analysis – for glycosylation profiling.
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.
1. Albrecht, S.; Vainauskas, S.; Stockmann, H.; McManus, C.; Taron, C.
H.; Pauline M. Rudd, Anal. Chem. DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.6b00259.
Waters, SYNAPT, High-Definition Mass Spectrometry, GlycoWorks, and RapiFluor-MS
are trademarks of Waters Corporation.
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Source: Waters Corporation
Waters Corporation
Brian J. Murphy, +1 508-482-2614
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