HIGHGLYCAN

Methods for high-throughput (HTP) analysis of protein glycosylation

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Glycosylation is a post-translational modification that enriches protein complexity and function. Dysregulation of glycosylation is associated with a wide range of diseases, including cancer, diabetes, as well as congenital, cardiovascular, immunological and infectious disorders. A number of studies identified potentially important glycan disease biomarkers. With regard to biotechnology, proper glycosylation of biologicals is important, as deviations in glycosylation are known to be associated with adverse drug reactions and reduced therapeutic efficacy. However, glycomics is significantly lagging behind genomics and proteomics, mainly due to the absence of high-throughput analytical methods which can reliably quantify a multitude of glycan structures in complex biological samples. We are confident that by coordinated efforts of leading European scientists in glycan analysis using HPLC, MS and CGE-LIF technologies this project will make a decisive step forward by developing real high-throughput tools for glycosylation analysis. By teaming up with leading European researchers in the field of genome wide association studies this project will perform validation of all methods on extremely well characterized set of samples resulting from the FP6 EuroSpan project. The addition of the newly generated glycome data to the pre-existing information about these individuals will enable development of methods for the systems biology approach analysis of the glycome which will integrate glycomic, genomic and environmental data about thousands of individuals. The same methods will also be adapted for quality control and monitoring in the production of biopharmaceuticals. Strong participation of SMEs in the project and close contacts with large industrial partners will ensure that research accomplishments achieved by collaboration between academic and industrial scientists are swiftly transformed into innovative products and services for the benefit of European industry.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

European researchers are working on an automated high-throughput method for analysing protein glycosylation. The technology is anticipated to advance current diagnostics and aid the discovery of disease-specific biomarkers.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Protein glycosylation - the addition of sugar moieties - plays an important role in determining the stability of proteins and guiding them to specific subcellular compartments. Alterations in glycan structure can modulate the activity of proteins and are strongly linked to diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. In addition, glycoproteins can serve as useful clinical biomarkers in diagnostics as well as targets for disease therapy.

To address the increasing medical need for the characterisation of protein glycosylation, the EU-funded http://www.highglycan.eu/ (HIGHGLYCAN) (Methods for high-throughput (HTP) analysis of protein glycosylation) project is in the process of developing analytical methods for reliably quantifying a multitude of glycan structures in complex biological samples. In this context, they will use ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography, capillary gel electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection, and mass spectrometry.

During the first part of the project, researchers focused on the development of suitable sample preparation methods and techniques for the analysis of protein glycosylation. Several improvements were made in measurement techniques and very good progress was achieved with regard to robotisation and automation of glycomic sample preparation methods. This has culminated in several automated profiling workflows of protein glycosylation, which were validated through the analysis of 1 800 samples. Results were further genetically associated with specific single nucleotide polymorphisms, unambiguously establishing the potential of all these methods in high-throughput biomedical research.

Central to the HIGHGLYCAN study is ensuring that the developed technology gets implemented in biotechnological applications. So far, some of the techniques have been incorporated into industrial glycoanalytical services and production of glycoanalytical kits.

Given the structural complexity of glycosylation and the technology gap, the HIGHGLYCAN glycoprofiling system is a reliable solution for the high-throughput identification and quantitation of glycans. Applications include studying glycosylation changes in diseases such as diabetes and identifying diagnostic biomarkers.