National Center for Functional Glycomics

The National Center for Functional Glycomics is an organization that is focused on the development of technology development in glycosciences. They are specifically focused on glycan analysis and molecular mechanisms of glycan recognition by proteins important in human biology and disease. The center was established at Emory University in 2013 with $5.5 million funding by National Institutes of Health[1][2][3] under the leadership of Richard D. Cummings. The center moved to Harvard University in September 2015 and is currently located at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston Massachusetts.[4][5] The center is affiliated with the Consortium for Functional Glycomics.

National Center for Functional Glycomics (NCFG)

The National Center for Functional Glycomics is one of four glycomics-related biomedical technology research resource centers in the United States.[6] These centers provide unique technology and methods in the field of glycomics research. The center is responsible for services and training for outside investigators, as well as providing access and disseminating technologies, methods and software.[7]

Research projects

The center's projects are:[8]

  • Analysis of potential glycan-binding proteins on various glycan arrays (CFG glycan array, Microbial glycan array, NCFG-derived arrays)
  • Structural analysis of glycans
  • Production of naturally occurring glycans by isolation

Shotgun glycomics

The center researches shotgun glycomics techniques in which glycans harvested and purified from various materials such as breast milk and pig lungs. Such techniques developed by the center and other glycomics groups can further be applied to tissues to generate an overall glycome of the tissue for research into various diseases such as cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.[9][10]

Oxidative Release of Natural Glycans

The oxidative release of natural glycans technique was developed at the center. This process involves household bleach treatment of tissues to release glycans for glycomics.[11] The eventual aim of this approach is to make glycomics accessible by a larger community of scientists by the development of tools which are easily available.

GlycoPattern

The National Center for Functional Glycomics has developed GlycoPattern, a web-based bioinformatics resource to assist in analysis of glycan array data. The GlycoPattern website offers tools and algorithms to discover structural motifs, heatmap visualizations for multiple experiment comparisons, clustering of Glycan Binding Proteins.[12][13]

Services

The National Center for Functional Glycomics offers the following services:

  • Printing custom microarrays on glass slides
  • Analysis of qualitative and quantitative changes in glycans associated with diseases and disorders by Glycan Reductive Isotope Labeling and mass spectrometry.

References
  1. NIH funds new National Center for Functional Glycomics at Emory
  2. GenomeWeb News- Emory Wins $5.5M to Launch Functional Glycomics Center
  3. DDNews- NIH to fund glycomics center at Emory
  4. NIAID CEIRS - Renowned glycobiologist and influenza researcher, Dr. Richard Cummings, moves to Harvard Medical School
  5. A Conversation with Richard Cummings
  6. NIH Biomedical Technology Research Resources for Glycomics
  7. Technology.org - Glycans: Sweet Spot (October 18, 2016)
  8. NIH project information: 5P41GM103694-05 National Center for Functional Glycomics
  9. The Scientist- Getting Your Sugar Fix (April 1, 2015)
  10. Song, Xuezheng; Lasanajak, Yi; Xia, Baoyun; Heimburg-Molinaro, Jamie; Rhea, Jeanne M; Ju, Hong; Zhao, Chunmei; Molinaro, Ross J; Cummings, Richard D; Smith, David F (5 December 2010). "Shotgun glycomics: a microarray strategy for functional glycomics". Nature Methods. 8 (1): 85–90. doi:10.1038/nmeth.1540. PMC 3074519. PMID 21131969.
  11. Song, Xuezheng; Ju, Hong; Lasanajak, Yi; Kudelka, Matthew R; Smith, David F; Cummings, Richard D (2 May 2016). "Oxidative release of natural glycans for functional glycomics". Nature Methods. 13 (6): 528–534. doi:10.1038/nmeth.3861. PMC 4887297. PMID 27135973.
  12. Agravat, S. B.; Saltz, J. H.; Cummings, R. D.; Smith, D. F. (20 August 2014). "GlycoPattern: a web platform for glycan array mining". Bioinformatics. 30 (23): 3417–3418. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btu559. PMC 4296152. PMID 25143288.
  13. GlycoPattern
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