Evaluating SPR array imaging for glycobiology

虽然碳水化合物的结构和识别显然是生物学的核心，但与蛋白质和核酸相比，我们对碳水化合物结构和功能的认识仍然是初级的。据估计，大约2%的人类基因组是专门用于糖活性酶的（在植物中高达6%），人类体内超过70%的蛋白质是糖基化的。反过来，这导致需要分析大量的聚糖结构及其同源结合蛋白，这为具有高通量潜力的新技术的发展提供了动力。最近，糖科学家已经确定了碳水化合物微阵列（糖阵列）作为高通量研究的关键工具，这对于理解这一复杂的生物学领域是必要的。本研究的目的是评估基于集成芯片的表面等离子体共振光谱-质谱分析碳水化合物活性酶的新方法。

Whilst carbohydrate structure and recognition are clearly central to biology, our appreciation of their structure and function is still rudimentary compared to proteins and nucleic acids. It has been estimated that around 2% of the human genome is dedicated to glyco-active enzymes (up to 6% in plants) and that over 70% of all proteins in man are glycosylated. In turn this has led to a need for analysis of larger numbers of glycan structures, and their cognate binding proteins, which has provided the impetus for the development of new technologies with high-throughput potential. Latterly, glycoscientists have identified carbohydrate microarrays (glycoarrays) as a key tool for the high-throughput studies that are necessary to understand this complex area of biology. The purpose of this study is to evaluate new methods with which to analyse carbohydrate-active enzymes based on integrated, chip-based surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy-mass spectrometry.