Glycomics/Glycoproteomics

Diagram illustrating the structures of various human milk oligosaccharides, grouped around lactose and categorized by their glycan compositions and linkages.

Milk Oligosaccharides

We can isolate and analyze milk oligosaccharides (MOs) from different sources of raw milk (human, primate, bovine, etc).  Purified MOs are derivatized in preparation for MS analysis:

Milk Oligosaccharide Profiling by MALDI-TOF-MS

Permethylated samples can be analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS to obtain oligosaccharide profiles as well as some structural information on low molecular weight MOs by MS/MS fragmentation.

Structural Characterization by LC-NSI-MS/MS

Permethylated MOs can be separated and analyzed in higher detail by means of LC-NSI-MS/MS. This analysis can provide sequencing information, structural elucidation of MOs, relative quantitation of glycoforms and milk group identification (secretor status / Lewis epitope) by means of MS/MS fragmentation. In addition, we also offer enrichment and detection of high molecular weight sialylated species.

 

Mass spectrum with labeled peaks, inset diagrams of HMO isomers and distinguishing fragments, and a chromatogram showing extracted ion current for m/z 3346.66.
A mass spectrometry graph displays glycan fragment ions across different retention times, with annotated structures and peaks; asterisks indicate fucose linkage isomers.