Waters Instrumentation and Expertise to Assist
with BTI’s Glycoanalytics and Glycobiotechnology Research
At a ceremony and symposium today, Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)
welcomed into its Centers of Innovation Program the Bioprocessing
Technology Institute (BTI), a research institute under Singapore’s
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). BTI is the
first research institute1 focused on glycobiology to participate in
the Waters Centers of Innovation Program.
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In a ceremony today, Singapore’s
Bioprocessing Technology Institute joined the Waters Centers of
Innovation Program. On hand for the event were (l. to r.) Dr.
Benjamin Seet, Executive Director, Biomedical Research Council,
Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore; Professor
Kong Peng Lam, Executive Director, Bioprocessing Technology
Institute (BTI); Eric Fotheringham, Senior Director – Waters
Centers of Innovation Program; and Mathieu Laouenon, General
Manager, South Asia, Waters Corporation. (Photo: Business Wire)
Glycans, or sugars, are one of the four fundamental classes of
macromolecules that comprise living systems. BTI’s glycan research
is aimed at finding novel cancer markers and elucidating
glycosylation pathways that could pave the way for new therapeutic
strategies.
“I am delighted that BTI has been recognised by Waters for its
expertise in glycomics. Through this collaboration, BTI will be
able to advance cancer biomarker research and further cement
Singapore’s position as a key player in biologics,” said Professor
Lam Kong-Peng, Executive Director of BTI.
“This award also recognizes the importance of the integrated
research programmes that are fundamental to the success of BTI,”
added Professor Lam.
“It’s truly a pleasure to have BTI participate in our COI
Program,” said Dr. Mike Harrington, Senior Vice President, Global
Markets for Waters Corporation. “BTI’s research in glycobiology is
world-class and we wish to help it realize the enormous potential
of this very important area of science through the application of
Waters analytical technologies and expertise.”
In connection with today’s announcement, Waters Corporation is
supporting The Next Frontier of Glycobiologics, a symposium
featuring keynote presentations from Professor Raymond Dwek,
Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom and
from Professor Nico Callewaert, VIB Medical Biotechnology Center,
University of Ghent, Belgium.
In 2016, Waters and BTI announced a collaboration to develop a
glycoconjugate database and spectral library that would assist
researchers using mass spectrometry in identifying glycans in their
samples. As part of this collaboration, Waters is contributing
scientific expertise and the use of a Waters® SYNAPT® G2-S High
Definition Mass Spectrometry® System. The instrument features ion
mobility mass spectrometry technology that rapidly separates
molecular ions by not only their size and mass-to-charge ratio, but
by their shape. It also calculates a collisional cross-section
(CCS) value for each molecular ion. The ability to identify glycans
based on their CCS value reveals insights into their unique
chemical structure that provides a higher degree of specificity
than using just mass-to-charge ratio alone.
The glycoscience programme, headed by Professor Pauline Rudd and
Dr. Terry Nguyen-Khuong, Scientist of BTI, will further develop and
apply state-of-the-art technology to advanced bioprocessing and
biologic characterization, development and production.
The Importance of Glycans and the Need for Better Measurement
Tools
Glycan research, like that being done at BTI, may promise to
lead to better understanding of diseases such as cardiovascular,
neurological, infectious, metabolic diseases and cancer through the
identification of disease biomarkers.
Opportunities in glycosciences have been assessed by committees
of scientists convened in the EU and US. In 2012 the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences released a report on glycoscience, its
potential and impediments to its progress. The report titled
Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future2 acknowledged
that glycoscience “is essential for understanding biology” and
pointed to the need for “tools to probe their often complex
structures and properties.” The report went on to state, “A suite
of tools analogous to those available for studying nucleic acids
and proteins is needed to detect, describe, and purify glycans from
natural sources, and characterize their chemical composition and
structure. The development of (such) tools for the detection,
imaging, separation, and high-resolution structure determination of
carbohydrate structures and complex mixtures should be a high
priority for the National Institutes of Health, the National
Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Food and Drug
Administration, and other relevant stakeholders.”
The report further stated the need for a glycan structure
database for understanding the structures and functions of glycans
and highlighted the role of liquid chromatography, mass
spectrometry and NMR measurements for obtaining detailed structural
information of glycoconjugates, whether from a cell membrane or
from a biopharmaceutical.
About the A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute
(BTI)
Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) is a member of the
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Established
in 1990 as the Bioprocessing Technology Unit, it was renamed the
Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) in 2003. The research
institute’s mission is to develop manpower capabilities and
establish cutting-edge technologies relevant to the bioprocessing
community. Some of the key research areas include expression
engineering, animal cell technology, stem cell research, microbial
fermentation, downstream purification and analytics.
For more information on BTI, please visit
https://www.a-star.edu.sg/bti/
About Waters Corporation (www.waters.com)
Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) develops and manufactures advanced
analytical and material science technologies for laboratory
dependent organizations. For more than 50 years, the company has
pioneered a connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory
information management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis
systems.
Waters, SYNAPT and High Definition Mass Spectrometry are
trademarks of Waters Corporation.
1. BTI is the second institution from Singapore to be recognized
by Waters Centers of Innovation Program. In 2011, the National
University of Singapore and Assistant Professor Ganesh Anand became
COI participants on the basis of their research into viral malaria
and dengue fever.
2. Transforming Glycoscience: A Roadmap for the Future, National
Academy of Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington,
D.C., 2012
http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Transforming-Glycoscience-Roadmap/13446
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Waters CorporationBrian J. Murphy, +1 508-482-2614Public
Relationsbrian_j_murphy@waters.com
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