"Glycomics lagged behind genomics and proteomics because there wasn't a practical high-throughput method to do glycan analysis," says Siegel. "Identifying and quantifying glycans was a slow and laborious task that was difficult to apply to biomedical research, even though it was understood that glycans had an important role in health and disease. The contribution of Ezose has been to provide a high-throughput method with our GlycanMap technology."

 

The proprietary Ezose platform combines, in an automated 96-well format, high-throughput glycan enrichment with specialized MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and custom bioinformatics to both structurally identify and quantitate glycans present in complex biological samples.  

 

"The technology is actually a suite of technologies—glycan enrichment, mass spectrometry, bioinformatics—that have been integrated to accelerate glycan identification and quantification," Siegel states. "The technologies, combined with assay automation, provide the throughput and repeatability needed for biomarker research and bioprocessing application."  

 

Such glycans can serve as novel biomarkers to aid in the development of drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests, including companion diagnostics. In addition, Ezose is counting on glycomics' potential for uncovering new therapeutic targets and mechanisms and for guiding the development and manufacture of glycosylated biologics and biosimilars. Ezose offers glycomics capabilities ranging from glycan analytics and biomarker discovery to diagnostic development and commercialization. The company tailors these capabilities to the needs of corporate partners under collaborative R&D and analytical-services agreements.

 

"The interest in gaining access to this technology is now apparent," says Siegel. "Ezose has embarked upon more than 25 collaborative projects with 15 external partners since the company started operations in 2009."