New liquid chromatography column separates challenging glycans and glycan isomers

The growing legion of scientists investigating glycans as disease markers and antibody-based biopharmaceuticals (nearly 800 publications in five years) now have an effective new tool for the challenging separations of glycans and glycan isomers. Thermo Fisher Scientific has showcased the GlycanPac AXR-1 column at booth #2441 during Pittcon 2014, being held at McCormick Place in Chicago.

“­Until now, glycan isomers could not be separated by conventional HPLC,” said Ilze Birznieks, Product Marketing Manager, Biocolumns, for Thermo Fisher. “This new column helps users achieve greater resolution of glycans using HPLC, providing easier profile characterisation. This is useful for characterising glycans from monoclonal antibodies being developed for therapeutics.”

The GlycanPac AXR-1 columns are designed for excellent resolution of labelled and unlabelled glycans, and are compatible with fluorescence and mass spectrometry detection methods. Mass spectrometry has emerged as a powerful tool for determining the structures of glycans, and this new column is designed to enable researchers to harness the power of high-resolution accurate-mass (HRAM) mass spectrometry at high-throughput rates. This column is designed to separate both labelled and native glycans based on the availability of samples. Native glycan separation allows researchers to eliminate the fluorescent labeling step and increase throughput without eroding performance.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai