S-BIO Launches BlotGlyco O-Glycan Sample Preparation Kit

HUDSON, N.H., June 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- S-BIO¹ has launched BlotGlyco® O-Glycan Sample Preparation Kit, a breakthrough new product that enables scientists to analyze O-glycans in biological samples and biotherapeutic glycoproteins, in a simple, safe and streamlined operation. The kit is a valuable tool supporting customers in glycoprotein characterization for bioprocess development and biomarker research, previously a challenging technique.

Glycans are sugar chains composed of linear and/or branched sequences of several carbohydrates. Changes in glycosylation are often a hallmark of disease states such as cancers, virus infection, etc. Characterizing the changes in glycosylation associated with cancer and chronic inflammation can lead to new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.

In biotherapeutics development, such as antibody drugs, it has been shown that glycans influence their yield, efficacy, immunogenicity and stability of the biotherapeutic agent. Glycans on glycoproteins, in general, are classified as N-glycans or O-glycans² according to their attachment site in proteins. For the detailed analysis of glycans, researchers need to isolate glycans with an appropriate method for characterization.

The BlotGlyco® O-Glycan Sample Preparation Kit consists of O-Glycan Releasing Reagent and BlotGlyco®³ beads. O-Glycan release in this kit is based on a chemical treatment with an ammonium salt that is far innocuous than conventional methods and effective for unbiased mild O-glycan release from glycoproteins. The released O-glycans are further enriched using BlotGlyco® beads that can be detected with HPLC, LC-MS, MALDI-TOF MS or CE using customer's choice of label.

The new BlotGlyco® O-Glycan Sample Preparation Kit will be available in the U.S. through S-BIO, Vaupell Holdings Inc. (www.s-bio.com), a Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. group company. S-BIO also offers the BlotGlyco® Purification and labeling Kit for N-glycan sample preparation.

For inquiries, please contact:
Anju M. Dang, Ph.D.
Director, Business Development
S-BIO, Vaupell Holdings Inc., Group Company of Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.
Tel: (603) 425-9697
Email
www.s-bio.com

Glossary
¹S-BIO, U.S. activity
S-BIO is a division of Sumitomo Bakelite that specializes in providing glycan analysis products and tools to advance glycomics research, and 3D cell culture plates for cancer and stem cell research.  GlycanMap® analytical services, formerly an Ezose Sciences' technology platform, have been implemented at S-BIO's new facility in Hudson, NH, where we will accelerate our commercialization of products/services to satisfy customer's needs in the fields of drug discovery, regenerative medicine, stem cell and cancer research, and glycobiology.

²N-glycan and O-glycan
N-glycans are attached to an asparagine residue, while O-glycans are found on serine or threonine residues in proteins. Unlike N-glycans, O-glycan release has been a challenge due to the lack of universal enzymes to cleave the complete glycan from proteins. Thus, chemical treatments have been employed to release O-glycans using a harsh chemicals and complex procedures. S-BIO's BlotGlyco® O-Glycan Sample Preparation Kit will fill the gap of the lack of versatile sample preparation method for O-glycan characterization.

³BlotGlyco®
BlotGlyco® is a polymer bead with dense hydrazide groups which enables selective purification of sugars, forming a reversible covalent bond.

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SOURCE S-BIO, Vaupell Holdings Inc., Group Company of Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.