Analytical Services

About Glykos Analytics

Glykos Analytics provides high through-put analytical services to characterize glycans of proteins as well as other biomolecules, cells and tissues. Our services include rapid mass spectrometric glycan profiling and full structural analysis of glycans.
Glycan profiling refers to analysis of the qualitative and quantitative information of glycan structures expressed in a biomolecule, cell or tissue. Glycan profile of a recombinant therapeutic protein, for example, is an invaluable tool for pharmaceutical and manufacturing process development and controlling protein’s biological function, pharmacokinetics, antibody effector functions such as ADCC and CDC, and biomolecular interactions.
We use advanced high-precision high through-put analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry, microanalytical chromatography, glycan and protein microarrays, and NMR spectroscopy to analyze glycan structures. You can find a list of our selected publications here.
Glykos has applied its glycomics technology to stem cells, for example, and was the first to characterize and publish the glycome of several human stem cell types. Furthermore, we have mapped glycan profiles of major cancer types and cancer stem cells and identified a host of novel biomarkers and treatment targets.
We work with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and leading research institutions in projects ranging from demanding structural characterization of single difficult-to-analyze glycoproteins to large high through-put process development projects involving large sample sets (from hundreds to thousands of samples) of therapeutic protein process variants.

For additional information and ordering please contact us on info@glykos.fi.

Glycan Profiling

Glykos provides high through-put analysis of both N-linked and O-linked glycans present on antibodies and other glycoproteins. Our proprietary technology combines a fully automated sample processing system with high throughput MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to generate high-quality and reproducible glycan profiles. The resulting qualitative and quantitative information is analyzed with our proprietary bioinformatics tools to gain the desired information related to structure-function relationships, batch-to-batch variability, process development, formulation stability, product characterization and other factors.
Glykos’ services provide a new solution to accelerate your biotherapeutic development programs by enabling rapid glycoform analysis of your samples. Our service relies on 96-well format sample processing to maximize throughput and repeatability and mass spectroscopic analysis to resolve glycan species and facilitate accurate identification of monosaccharide compositions and glycan modifications, such as O-acetylation, sulfation, and phosphorylation.

Glykos offers several service options depending on your glycan analysis needs.

Glycan profiling:

  • Optimized for screening glycans in large sample batches (e.g. during cell line selection, upstream and downstream process development, quality control, and biomarker discovery)
  • Compatible with monoclonal antibodies and other glycoproteins
  • Applicable to both N- and O-glycoproteins as well as glycosphingolipids
  • Reliable analyses from complex biological matrices such as cells and tissues
  • Analysis method: MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy
  • Capable of detecting low abundance glycans (< 0.5% of total glycans)
  • Detailed report with glycan composition, relative proportion of total glycans and classification into biosynthetic pathways for detected glycans

Glycan structural characterization:

  • Structural analysis of glycan structures of interest with modern analytical methods including mass spectrometric fragmentation, glycosidase sequencing and NMR spectroscopy

In addition to these service options, Glykos provides glycan analyses customized to your needs utilizing our experienced staff, well-equipped laboratories and a full suite of glycan analysis techniques.

For further details please contact us on info@glykos.fi.

Biomarker Research

Glykos leverages its glycan analytics capabilities, along with our full suite of antibody development technologies, to support biomarker discovery and development programs across a wide range of therapeutic areas.
Glykos has optimized sample preparation and glycan extraction from complex biological matrices of cells and tissues. Glycan profiling is applicable to cultured cells, clinical tissue specimens (including paraffin-embedded archival samples), serum, saliva, urine, as well as other common biological samples. The methodology is optimal for biomarker discovery by comparison of samples from e.g. different disease states and healthy tissues.

Our biomarker research capabilities include:

  • Characterization of changes in post-translational modification of proteins (glycan profiling and glycan structural characterization)
  • Glycan analysis of glycosphingolipids
  • Glycan profiling across various complex biological samples, including serum/plasma, CSF, tissues, tumors, as well as cells, stem cells and cell extracts
  • Identification of novel glycan markers that correlate with disease or drug response, potentially leading to novel therapeutic targets and diagnostic entities

In addition to our core glycomics technology, Glykos also has a full suite of anti-glycan antibody development, protein characterization and assay development capabilities to facilitate translation of novel glycan biomarkers to routine research or clinical assays.

Please contact us on info@glykos.fi for additional details.