Comprehensive Glycoproteomic Tool Development for Cancer Biomarkers

Project SummaryGlycosylation is one of the most prevalent and important post translational modifications of proteinsyet it is also one of the most difficult to studyNo single method nor analytical platform can give complete information about the glycosylation in a protein sampleand the analytical methods in current use include both ESI and MALDI single and tandem mass spectrometryat least four types of liquid chromatographyiterative enzyme analysisglycan binding experiments with fluorescence read outand new methods such as ion mobility spectrometryThere is currently no software platform that can integrate even two of these different data channelsIn this project we propose to build a software product called GlycoForm that will be capable of analyzingvisualizingand integrating glycosylation data over multiple channelsGlycoForm will be able to identify released glycans to the level of detail warranted by the evidence and quantify them using either mass spectrometry or fluorescence signalsThe software will include both an interactive user interface for expert inspectionand also customized and automated glycosylation reports for sharing and archivingThe initial release of GlycoForm will handle single and tandem mass spectrometrychromatographic elution timeand glycan binding experimentsother data channels will be added later in response to customer demand Project NarrativeIn this Phase II STTR projectwe propose to develop a commercial software product called GlycoForm for integrating glycomics and glycoproteomics data from multiple analytical methodsThe expected markets for GlycoForm include academic research laboratories and biopharmaceutical companies engaged in basic researchbiomarker discoveryearly drug developmentand protein therapeutic characterizationThe proposed project has the potential for great impact on human health in areas such as vaccine and drug development and cancer biomarker discovery