What Has Been Achieved:

A high-impact publication in Chemical Science detailing the synthesis of 36 unique N-glycan standards. Which will be available as a library for determining structure-function relationships. The GlycoMIP User Facility at UGA supported the research of Dr. Lei Li, an Assistant Professor in the Department of chemistry at Georgia State University by providing expertise and technologies to characterize the standards.

Importance of the Achievement:

Mammalian N-glycans present a unique bisecting N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which alters protein binding specificity. In-depth characterization has not been previously possible due to a lack of standards. A synthetic library of 36 unique N-glycan standards, both bisecting and non-bisecting, were prepared via chemoenzymatic approaches and a glycan array platform was developed to test the functional relationships of these glycans. The GlycoMIP user facility at University of Georgia established an analytical procedures for the structural characterization of these 36 N-glycans and identified a diagnostic fragment via tandem mass spectrometry that confirms the presence of a bisecting GlcNAc. Bisecting N-glycans presents opportunities to design glycomaterials that capitalize on its conformational and bio-recognition properties and the now publicly available MSn profiles advance glycoanalysis in this domain.

Unique Feature(s) of the MIP that Enabled this Achievement:

The GlycoMIP User Facility at UGA provided the resources and expertise for protocol develop, leading to characterization of the glycans.