Glycan Analysis with New UPLC and UPLC-MS Analytical Workflows Transformed

Waters Corporation have announced ground-breaking new technology for characterising glycoproteins. The technology introduction at WCBP 2015, includes the new GlycoWorks™ RapiFluor-MS N-Glycan Kit, the Waters® ACQUITY UPLC®, the ACQUITY® UPLC FLR Detector and the ACQUITY QDa® detector, and enables scientists to analyse released N-glycans and achieve new levels of speed, sensitivity, simplicity while obtaining previously unattainable structural information.

This new set of technologies enables fast de-glycosylation and labelling, and a workflow that reduces sample preparation time from a day to less than one hour; allows mass detection for characterisation and development with sensitivity that is 100 to 1,000-fold better than current approaches; and enables routine laboratory use supported by a simple robust protocol without involving MS experts.

For scientists doing biotherapeutic process development, process monitoring or batch release, pairing the new RapiFluor-MS labeling technology with Waters ACQUITY UPLC H-Class System and QDa Detector ushers in a new era for released N-glycan profile monitoring. The speed and sensitivity advantages of the reagent and protocol enable simple, routine MS analysis. Confirming glycan assignment via mass data produced by the ACQUITY QDa Detector provides information previously unavailable. 

For analysts using fluorescence detection, the new kit, when used with the ACQUITY UPLC and the ACQUITY UPLC FLR Detector, reduces sample preparation time from a day to less than one hour while enhancing fluorescent sensitivity.

The Waters Glycan Application Solution with UNIFI®, part of the broader Waters Biopharmaceutical Platform Solution with UNIFI, introduced in 2013, consists of a high-resolution UPLC/QTof-MS system that characterises and monitors glycans in biopharmaceutical discovery and development labs as well as in the highly-regulated late-stage development and QC organisations.

Now, with the enhanced sensitivity made possible by the RapiFluor-MS label, researchers will see a greater optical and mass spectrometric response. This facilitates accurate mass confirmation for low-level peaks and enhances MS/MS glycan fragmentation for definitive glycan assignment.

Also being launched are the RapiFluor-MS Dextran Calibration Ladder and Glycan Performance Test Standard, based on pooled IgG, to support benchmarking system performance and conduct Glucose Unit (GU)-based released glycan analysis studies. The GU-based approach makes glycan analysis more robust, allowing UPLC-MS assays to transfer between instruments and laboratories more readily.