Tags: Analytical Seminar

Glycosylation is a common post translational modification of proteins which adds a complex carbohydrate moiety to one or more sites of the protein. These modifications are found in a large proportion of human proteins and play important roles in organ development, cancer growth, and viral infection mechanisms. Despite their biomedical relevance, methods understanding molecular basis for glycoprotein functions is often hampered by the…

Biotherapeutic drugs present new analytical challenges to the drug development and quality control process. Unlike traditional small molecule drugs where synthetic choices can be tightly controlled, biotherapeutic drugs rely on the integrity of host cell biosynthetic machinery to manufacture the drug. The host cells themselves also present an issue where the biotherapeutic product can be contaminated with trace amounts of host cell proteins (…

Approximately 35% of all drugs currently in clinical use target a single family of proteins: G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs).[1] Due to the therapeutic importance of this class of proteins, it should be no surprise that proteins involved in regulating signaling initiated by GPCRs are gathering attention as potential drug targets. One such family of proteins is known as the Regulators of G-protein Signaling (RGS). These proteins function as…

Biotherapeutic drugs present new analytical challenges to the drug development and quality control process. Unlike traditional small molecule drugs where synthetic choices can be tightly controlled, biotherapeutic drugs rely on the integrity of host cell biosynthetic machinery to manufacture the drug. The host cells themselves also present an issue where the biotherapeutic product can be contaminated with trace amounts of host cell proteins (…

The Isotopic Detection of Aminosugars With Glutamine (IDAWG) method was originally developed for the glycomics field as a quantitative tool that takes advantage of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, isotopically labeling nitrogen-containing glycans in cell culture systems via the use of 15N-Gln1,2. Here, we present an adaptation of this method, Dynamic IDAWG, that allows for the calculation of half-lives and sialic acid remodeling for released…

Polymer interface science is broadening its area to nanotechnologies, medicine, and biotechnology. The well-defined and controlled polymeric interfaces have been developed and provided a variety of surface properties by varying molecular characteristics of the polymer brushes1.  However, affinity-based sorting of colloidal particulates, such as cells and viruses, from a mixture of different particles is limited due to the quasi-irreversible…

Microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) like ketones, alcohols, terpenes, and terpene derivatives are primary and secondary metabolites of fungi and bacteria1 . Indoor environments with varying amounts of humidity, lack of light, oxygen, and carbon dioxide create the breeding ground for MVOCs. Prolonged human exposure to MVOCs has been directly associated with sick building syndrome (SBS), respiratory irritation, and asthma-like symptoms1…

The field of art conservation relies on many analytical techniques that are also used in the field of chemistry. Art comes in many forms from paintings, to sculptures, to written word. Each work of art can be chemically unique, as well as chemically and structurally complex. Modern analytical chemistry techniques such as IR, RAMAN, X-ray spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry coupled with a variety of imaging methods can help art conservationists…

Dramatic advances in the understanding of X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) have been made over the past few decades, which have led ultimately to a highly quantitative theory. X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) refers to the oscillatory structure in the x-ray absorption coefficient just above an x-ray absorption edge. This turns out to be a unique signature of a given material; it also depends on the detailed atomic structure and…

Since the 1950s, plastic production has steadily increased with millions of metric tons accumulating in the environment.1 Much of the waste stream is single use plastics, and the need for biodegradable alternatives is pressing. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a class of polymers produced by many bacteria as a carbon source, presents a viable biodegradable replacement for many commodity thermoplastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene.…