Application for a HPLC purification system

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The application is to request funds for the purchase of a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system with a gradient pump, a UV-Vis dectector and a refractive index detector. The system is designed with two injectors and is capable of handling both analytical and semi-preparative samples. Three themes have been proposed in my NSERC discovery grant. The first concerns the rational design and synthesis of carbohydrate inhibitors for tumour-associated glycosyltransferases; the second is to study a family of oligosialic acids and use them to raise high-affinity antibodies that are capable of recongnizing the natural polysialic acids antigens via binding to the terminus residues; the third theme is to develop a general and efficient clustering strategy for carbohydrate antigens to increase immunogeneicity through the introduction of multivalent interactions between B-cell receptors and the synthesized cluster molecules. Our research will routinely involve heavy organic syntheses and deal with complex molecules such as protected and de-protected oligosaccharides and their protein conjugates which are well-known to be extremely difficult to purify by recrystallization. A HPLC capable of handling various organic and bio-organic materials is thus essential for our success.