The Pursuit of How Structure Impacts Function: from Lipids to Oligonucleotides

The functional role of a biological molecule hinges on its unique structure. The context by which structure impacts function is a vital piece of information that can provide insight into underlying biological processes. One set of biological molecules that have received renewed interest for their biological significance and potential role as markers of cellular dysfunction are lipids. Cellular lipids have significant potential to inform on physiology owing to the pivotal role lipids play in many biological processes including cellular integrity, energy storage, and signaling pathways. In this presentation, I will share several examples of our multidimensional approach using separations (liquid and gas-phase), adduct consolidation, and mass spectrometry to characterize lipid structure. I will also present our recent progress on the lab’s effort to translate our analytical methods to the analysis of oligonucleotide therapeutics.