Christina R. Ferreira works as Lipidomics Scientist in the Metabolite Profiling Facility at Purdue University. Her main research interest is the application of the MRM-profiling method for the exploratory analysis of lipids and metabolites in developmental biology models. She created of the MRM-profiling method and contributes to diverse projects from the Cooks lab related to further developing this method. Dr. Ferreira also supports the application MRM-profiling in research projects served by the multi-user Purdue Metabolite Profiling Facility at Bindley Bioscience Center. She iss the project manager for a large effort (Purdue Make-It System) for high-throughput screening and analysis of chemical reactions using DESI-MS.

R. Graham Cooks is the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University. He has served as major professor to 140 PhD students. Dr. Cooks’ was a pioneer in the conception and implementation of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and of desorption ionization, especially molecular secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS). In 2015 his lab performed exploratory analysis of small molecules in cerebrospinal fluid from which the MRM-profiling method emerged. His work also includes the development of miniature portable mass spectrometers using ambient ionization and application of this combination to problems of trace chemical analysis at point-of-care. His interests in the fundamentals of ion chemistry focus on chiral analysis based on the kinetics of cluster ion fragmentation. His group also studies collisions of ions at surfaces for new methods of molecular surface tailoring and analysis, and nanomaterials preparation by soft-landing of ions and charged droplets. Dr. Cooks also launched new method of preparative mass spectrometry based on accelerated reactions in microdroplets. Dr. Cooks has been recognized with the Mass Spectrometry and the Analytical Chemistry awards of the American Chemical Society, the Robert Boyle Medal and the Centennial Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Inventors and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

In this talk, we invite the audience to critically investigate the predominant mass spectrometry workflows used for the exploratory analysis of small molecules and discuss its analytical aspects. We will then present an approach for exploratory lipidomics and metabolomics, multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-profiling, which initially explores small molecules present in biological samples based on their chemical functionalities using precursor ion (Prec) and neutral loss (NL) scans without the use of chromatographic separation. In a second step the Prec and NL information is translated into MRM scans and these are used to obtain mass profiles to be compared among samples by univariate and multivariate statistical methods. The MRM profiling methodology is characterized by high speed and excellent classification of samples. Identification and quantitation of individual molecules is also achieved.

*This talk was originally scheduled to be presented at MSACL 2020 US by John Yates. It is expected to be about 20 minutes, not including Q&A.

INTRODUCTION: Proteins have exquisite three-dimensional structure. Their structures dictate the functions and interactions within the cell. Most of what we know about the structures of proteins comes from methods like x-ray crystallography, NMR and more recently cyro-EM. These methods are all in vitro methods that often look at proteins as single entities or as a protein complex. What is often missing is the in vivo context to the protein structure, e.g. what is the structure that exists in the cell. Several mass spectrometry-based methods are emerging to examine the 3D proteome or the conformations of proteins in their in vivo context.

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this work is to develop methods to measure the "structures" or confirmations of protein in the in vivo environment and to apply them to common diseases.

METHODS: We’ve developed a strategy to measure the surface accessibility of proteins in vivo that provides information about protein conformations and does so in a quantitative manner.

RESULTS: This method has been used to study protein misfolding diseases. This method has been applied to WT and mutant DF508 CFTR to examine structural changes induced by the mutation. A significant change has been observed at a critical interface between the NBD1 and NBD2 domains. This method is also being applied in Alzheimer's disease (AD)and Lewy body disease (LBD) to measure extent of conformational changes to proteins. This method is applied to AD and LBD patient brain tissue lysates and extensive protein comformational changes are observed.

CONCLUSIONS: Substantial changes beyond misfolded aBeta and Tau are observed and based on the molecular changes observed it is difficult to distinguish at the molecular level between advanced AD and LBD suggesting in neurodegenerative misfolding diseases the collapse of proteostasis has a similar endpoint. The studies of CFTR show a critical interface is disrupted between WT and DF508.

I am an analytical chemist focused on infection metallomics and clinical mass spectrometry (MS). From 1991 I have had the main contract with the Institute of Microbiology in Prague, where I run an analytical lab with 25 employees now benefitting from mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and electron microscopy (https://ms.biomed.cas.cz/). As a professor of analytical chemistry, I am also active at Palacky University in Olomouc, CZ, providing me with access to elemental imaging mass spectrometry and infection models. I have a scientific profile with 3582 citations (access date May 21, 2020), 1517 citations since 2015. My current h-index is 30 (Google Scholar). In 2020 I contributed to 11 peer-reviewed papers, nine of them I corresponded.

*This talk was originally scheduled to be presented at MSACL 2020 US. It is expected to be about 35-45 minutes, not including Q&A.

Background: The detection and quantitation of siderophores in urine represents an innovative early indication of pathogenic microorganisms in a host [1]. In this presentation, we document why the general application of siderophores in invasive infectious diagnostics will soon represent the same clinical breakthrough as ribosomal protein typing ten years ago. In addition to handling co-infections or polymicrobial frenemies, with mass spectrometry, we can monitor the antimicrobial drug metabolism [2].

Methods: A database of 700 microbial siderophores was used for screening a patient’s status with invasive infections caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and zygomycetes. Human urine samples were examined by liquid chromatography and Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer [3]. The biomarkers were quantified against matrix-matched standards, and our in-house tool called CycloBranch (https://ms.biomed.cas.cz/cyclobranch) was used for compound dereplication [4].

Results: For the diagnosis of aspergillosis, we used an array of ferri-triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC)/ferri-ferricrocine (FC)/gliotoxin (GTX) in a cohort of 28 patients (14 positive and 14 negative controls). LOD for TAFC in human urine was 0.1 ng/mL. The maximum experienced concentration was 1.7 ug/mL. In the working dataset of critically ill, mostly non-neutropenic humans, the TAFC/FC/GTX sensitivity in urine was 93% compared to standard GM in serum (36%). The kinetic profiles upon antimycotic treatment showed a quick drop in siderophore production in vivo. In the same cohort, ferri-pyoverdines and pyochelin were detected as urinal biomarkers in the patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The LOD for Fe-PVD in urine was 10 ng/mL. In serum samples, the LOD and LOQs were 1 and 5 ng/mL, respectively. In the seminar I will also show the co-infecting frenemies studied in animal models of bacterial [5] or fungal infections [6].

Conclusion: Urinal samples are analytically attractive due to less chemical background compared to serum and clinically interesting due to non-invasive applications. Optimized sample preparation could soon move siderophore analysis from FTICR equipment to standard MALDI-Biotyper-type labs.

References:

1. Luptáková, D.; Pluhá?ek, T.; Pet?ík, M.; Novák, J.; Palyzová, A.; Sokolová, L.; Škríba, A.; Šedivá, B.; Lemr, K. and Havlí?ek, V. Non-invasive and invasive diagnoses of aspergillosis in a rat model by mass spectrometry. Sci Rep 2017, 7, 16523.

2. Houst, J.; Spizek, J. and Havlicek, V. Antifungal Drugs. Metabolites 2020, 10, article No. 106.

3. Pluhacek, T.; Skriba, A.; Novak, J.; Luptakova, D. and Havlicek, V. Analysis of Microbial Siderophores by Mass Spectrometry. In: SK Bhattacharya (ed) Metabolomics: Methods and Protocols 2019: 131-153.

4. Novák, J.; Škríba, A. and Havlí?ek, V. CycloBranch 2: Molecular Formula Annotations Applied to imzML Data Sets in Bimodal Fusion and LC-MS Data Files. Anal Chem 2020, 92, 6844-6849.

5. Petrik, M.; Umlaufova, E.; Raclavsky, V.; Palyzova, A.; Havlicek, V.; Haas, H.; Novy, Z.; Dolezal, D.; Hajduch, M. and Decristoforo, C. Imaging of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection with Ga-68 labelled pyoverdine for positron emission tomography. Sci Rep 2018, 8, 15698.

6. Skriba, A.; Pluhacek, T.; Palyzova, A.; Novy, Z.; Lemr, K.; Hajduch, M.; Petrik, M. and Havlicek, V. Early and Non-invasive Diagnosis of Aspergillosis Revealed by Infection Kinetics Monitored in a Rat Model. Front Microbiol 2018, 9, 2356.

Michael H. Gelb is Professor of Chemistry and Barbara L. Weinstein Endowed Chair in Chemistry, Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Washington. Major developments in the Gelb lab include discovery of protein prenylation, development of ICAT proteomic reagents, identification of phospholipases involved in lipid mediator generation, development of anti-parasite drugs, and development of mass spectrometry for newborn screening. Awards include: Repligen Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes (Amer. Chem. Soc.), Univ.of Washington Faculty Lecture Award, Gustavus John Esselen Award (Harvard Univ.), AAAS Fellow, NIH Merit Award, Medicines for Malaria Project of the Year Award, Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, ICI Pharmaceuticals Award for Excellence in Chemistry. The Gelb lab has published more than 500 papers and 100 patents in biological chemistry. The Gelb laboratory has developed mass spectrometry for worldwide newborn screening of lysosomal storage diseases (the latest expansion of newborn screening panels).

Mass spectrometry has a strong presence in newborn screening laboratories because of the ability to quantify numerous metabolites in dried blood spots on newborn screening cards. Over the past decade mass spectrometry has been developed to measure enzymatic activities in dried blood spots. We will present an 18-plex mass spectrometry assay that provides enzymatic activities and biomarkers for lysosomal diseases and allows consolidation with existing mass spectrometry newborn screening panels. In the second part of the presentation we will show the feasibility of using mass spectrometry for proteomics-based newborn screening. This allows screening for a panel of treatable diseaes for which no other methods exists.
As more and more inborn errors become treatable, in part due to gene therapy, it will be important to develop a universal screening platform that allows high throughput, consolidated newborn screening. Despite great progress in DNA sequencing technology, this will not replace biochemical newborn screening in the foreseable future.

INTRODUCTION: Cystic Fibrosis is a disease caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis ion transport regulator gene (CFTR). The most common mutation, deletion of Phe at position 508 (DF508), results in a loss of function phenotype that causes a large number of clinical symptoms including chronic respiratory infections. At the protein level, the DF508 mutation causes the protein to misfold which results in rapid degradation of the protein in the ER.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to understand the mechanisms involved in regulating protein misfolding to learn how to rescue the misfolded protein. A detailed understanding of the mechanism should lead to the identification of drug targets for treatment of the disease.

METHODS: Mass spectrometry-based proteomics was used to identify the proteins interacting with wild type CFTR and DF508 CFTR to identify those proteins interacting with the mutant protein, but not the wild type. Proteins interacting uniquely with the mutant were knocked down to identify those proteins whose “inhibition” could potentially rescue the misfolded protein. In addition, regulation of the trafficking process by post translational modifications was also determined using mass spectrometry.

RESULTS: A much better understanding of the mechanisms behind rescue of the mutant protein has been derived from these studies. A disease specific interactome was identified. Proteins interacting with DF508 whose knockdown rescue the mutant protein have been identified. A PTM code has been identified that must be present for the protein to exit the ER. In addition, structural details of the misfolded protein have been determined using a surface accessibility method.

CONCLUSION: By understanding the mechanism behind the loss of function phenotype of DF508 CFTR we now have better routes to rescue the protein and treat CF disease. This knowledge can be used to understand other mutations in the gene that also result non-trafficking of the protein.

Dr. Yonghao Yu received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006 under the direction of Julie Leary, where he developed mass spectrometric approaches for the study of tyrosine sulfation, a protein post-translational modification that is implicated in regulating protein-protein interactions in the extracellular space. In 2007, Dr. Yu joined the laboratories of Steven Gygi and John Blenis in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral training. There he developed quantitative mass spectrometric strategies for the study of protein phosphorylation.

In 2012, Dr. Yu began his independent research career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2017. Throughout his career, Dr. Yu has been the recipient of numerous awards for his research, including the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance Postdoctoral Fellowship, a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research award, a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research award, a Research Scholar award from the American Cancer Society, a UT System Rising STARs Award and most recently, an R35 MIRA award from NIGMS. He has served on many NIH and DoD advisory panels, including as a current member of the NIH Enabling Bioanalytical and Imaging Technologies (EBIT) Study Section.

The long-term goals of the Yu lab are to develop cutting-edge, mass spectrometry-based proteomic technologies, and applying them to systematically identify and characterize novel protein modification events implicated in various pathophysiological conditions. These data-driven strategies are then combined with classical biochemistry approaches to identify aberrant protein modification patterns, decipher the mechanisms of their deregulation, establish the functional consequences of these molecular events, facilitate the development of relevant therapeutic strategies, and finally, identify proteomic signatures that may serve as diagnostic, prognostic or predictive biomarkers for the relevant diseases (e.g., cancer, diabetes and neurodegenerative disease).

Our understanding of how the biology of various diseases relates to the central dogma that DNA encodes RNA, which encodes protein has been buoyed by rapid technological advances in DNA and RNA sequencing and has led to some of the first advances in personalized medicine. However, characterization of the final and arguably most actionable element of the central dogma, protein, has lagged behind. We are interested in developing mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomic technologies for the comprehensive characterization of the proteome, with a particular focus on post-translational modifications (PTMs)

Poly-ADP-ribosylation (PARylation) is a protein posttranslational modification (PTM) that was first documented in 1963. PARylation is catalyzed by a family of enzymes called Poly-ADP-ribose polymerases (PARPs). In particular, PARP1 is a nuclear protein that is activated as a result of sensing DNA strand breaks. The critical roles of PARP1 in mediating DNA repair and also cell death provide the rationale for developing PARP1 inhibitors to treat a number of human diseases, including cancer and ischemia reperfusion injury. Indeed, late-stage clinical studies revealed that PARP1 inhibitor treatment significantly prolonged progression-free survival of BRCA-deficient ovarian and breast cancer patients. This led to the recent FDA approval of four PARP1 inhibitors in these two indications. However, the signaling mechanism of PARP enzymes is poorly understood, because PARylation is a labile and heterogenous modification.

To address these pressing questions, we developed a large-scale mass spectrometric approach towards comprehensive characterization of the Asp- and Glu-PARylated proteome. Remarkably, the modified proteins are involved in not only DNA damage repair, but also a surprisingly wide array of other nuclear functions. Using a quantitative mass spectrometry experiment, we also identified many previously unknown PARP1 downstream targets, whose PARylation is sensitive to clinically relevant PARP1 inhibitors. More recently, we generated a cell-specific atlas for protein PARylation map in breast cancer. In doing so, we identified PARylation signatures that correlated with the selective cytotoxicity of PARP1 inhibitors in certain breast cancer cells. These results provide potential predictive biomarkers for PARP1 inhibitors. Finally, using the PROTAC technology, we recently developed a small molecule compound that selectively induces the degradation of PARP1. This compound is able to inhibit PARP1, without eliciting the deleterious effects of PARP1 trapping. We showed that this “non-trapping” PARP1 degrader protects primary cardiomyocytes from genotoxicity-induced cell death. These compounds therefore provide an ideal approach for the amelioration of the various pathological conditions caused by PARP1 hyperactivation.

Robin oversees all Research &Product Development programs within Metabolomic Diagnostics, a company focused on developing early pregnancy risk stratification tests for obstetrical syndromes like preeclampsia and preterm birth. He trained as an analytical chemist, specialized in mass spectrometry, and received a PhD from the University of Antwerp in 2006. After 7 years with a Belgian proteomics biomarker discovery company, where he led the preeclampsia biomarker discovery program, Robin joined Metabolomic Diagnostics in 2013. Since then, he and his team established a translational research workflow which aims to overcome the challenges of translating promising biomarkers into novel products.

Operating at the interface of translational research and commercialisation, he has always keenly engaged in conversations with members of the clinical research community on how to deliver on a shared mission of improving pregnancy outcomes.

Robin has co-authored 20+ original research articles and is a named inventor on 10 patent applications.

Grégoire is a biostatistician specialised in clinical diagnostics and medical devices. Based on complexity estimations, he implements data analysis strategies and statistical frameworks which mitigate risks and therefore increase the chance of successful outcomes. This is achieved by working at the crossroads of statistics, machine learning, medical sciences, and epidemiology whilst adopting IT solutions which are compliant with regulatory and legal frameworks. As a consultant, Grégoire has an established track record of fruitful collaborations with both academic and industry partners.

The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve is a widely used statistic to evaluate performance of prognostic and diagnostic tests. Because AUROC does not depend on disease prevalence, the statistic has also gained prominence in biomarker discovery and development, as it enables biomarker evaluation using cost-effective case-control study designs.
However, end-users in clinical settings typically assess the merits of prognostic / diagnostic tests in function of patient harm and benefit. Disease prevalence and clinical context are critical determinants in clinical utility evaluations and therefore different statistics, like positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), which account for these determinants are typically used to gauge clinical utility. Albeit most biomarker work is performed with the goal of improving clinical care, clinical utility is rarely considered during test development.

To address this lacuna, we devised a method for plotting PPV or NPV criteria, which account for prevalence, in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) space. Herewith, test developers and clinical end-users are provided with a common framework to discuss and evaluate prognostic / diagnostic test performances.

In this talk we will briefly review key concepts like Sensitivity (Sn), Specificity (Sp) and Prevalence (Pr), and how they are used to create ROC curves (Sn, Sp) and calculate predictive values (Sn, Sp, Pr). We will highlight the limitations of solely depending on AUROC in test evaluations and the importance of considering the shape of ROC curves. Then we will demonstrate how PPV and NPV criteria can be plotted on the ROC space and how this information can be used to discuss test performance in function of clinical utility with different stakeholders. We will conclude with the demonstration of a freely accessible web-tool developed to allow people to explore the dynamic interplay between the test characteristics Sn, Sp, Pr, AUROC, ROC curve shape, PPV and NPV.

Paper: A novel method for interrogating receiver operating characteristic curves for assessing prognostic tests

Software Tools : Positive and negative predictive values

# Originally scheduled for MSACL2020 US in the Scientific Session : Fentanyl at the Forefront : Using Non-traditional Approaches to Identify Fentanyl Analogs

Introduction

Deaths due to opioid overdoses have been on the rise in the United States, with a particular spike in this trend caused by the emergence of synthetic opioids including fentanyl and analogues. There have been numerous reported cases of synthetic opioids as adulterants in heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and counterfeit pills. As a result, they are often times consumed unknowingly, causing mixed toxidromes and confounding diagnosis. Proper routine drug monitoring is essential in addressing the ever-expanding magnitude of the opioid epidemic.

Objectives

The primary objective of this study was to observe prevalence of fentanyl analogs and other false positives in positive fentanyl screens of emergency medicine populations in order to evaluate trends in the dynamic landscape of substance abuse.

Methods

Analysis of remnant clinical samples was approved by the UCSF Institutional Review Board. Urine samples from emergency department (ED) patients with drugs-of-abuse screens performed were monitored from October 2018 to March 2019 for presence of fentanyl (via immunoassay). Samples with a positive fentanyl screen were collected and further characterized by high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Urine samples were diluted 1:5. Chromatography was performed using a Kinetex C18 column with a 10-minute gradient from 2%-100% organic. Data was collected on a SCIEX TripleTOF®5600 using a positive-ion mode TOF-MS survey scan with IDA-triggered collection of high resolution product ion spectra (20 dependent scans). Data was screened for fentanyl, norfentanyl, 13 literature-reported synthetic opioids, and compounds reported/suspected to cause false positives with fentanyl immunoassays.

Results

158 emergency department patient samples screened positive via EMIT fentanyl immunoassay (7.44% of all ED samples screened for drugs of abuse). These samples were analyzed via LC-HRMS and analysis was targeted for 15 synthetic opioids and commonly prescribed or over-the-counter pharmaceuticals with chemical structures similar to that of fentanyl. 6.9% of samples were found to be positive for both fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl. Additionally, risperidone, its metabolite 9-hydroxyrisperidone (paliperidone), and loperamide with its metabolite desmethylloperamide were discovered as sources of false positive for fentanyl screens.

Conclusion

This data reveals the non-trivial prevalence of fentanyl in the ED patient population being screened for drugs of abuse. In many of the cases, fentanyl was not suspected or discovered as exposure agent prior to more comprehensive testing or patient discharge. The identification of acetyl fentanyl along with fentanyl via HRMS analysis can hint to a changing trend in provenance of illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Finally, HRMS is a valuable tool to identify compounds responsible for reoccurring false positives that can inform better patient care and offer a more accurate picture of the continually evolving opioid epidemic.

Robert L. Fitzgerald, PhD, DABCC Dr. Fitzgerald received his BS degree in Chemistry at Loyola College of Maryland, and his PhD in Pharmacology/Toxicology at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University. After two and a half years as a forensic toxicologist for the State of Virginia, he took a position as the Director of the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the San Diego VA Hospital. Currently, Dr. Fitzgerald is a Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego where he is the director of the toxicology laboratory and associate director of the clinical chemistry laboratory. He is board certified in toxicology and clinical chemistry by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry. He is the director of the clinical chemistry fellowship at UCSD.

I graduated in analytical chemistry from the faculty of chemistry at Shahid Beheshti University (Tehran,Iran).For my Master's thesis I was working on the Optimization of solid phase microextraction and electromembrane extraction techniques to measure certain pollutants and drugs. During my studies,I was also awarded medals and honorary diplomas from international and national competitions and expositions because of my inventions. In June 2017, I started my Glysign PhD project, conducting research at Genos Ltd., Zagreb, Croatia, and the Leiden University Medical Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands. My research is geared towards the quantification of serum protein glycosylation for patient stratification in early-onset and other diabetes types.

# Originally scheduled to be presented at MSACL 2020 US. Moved from August 10 make-up session due to timing conflict.

Introduction

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) represents a major public health challenge. The total plasma N-glycome (TPNG) reflects the levels and glycosylation of major plasma glycoproteins, among which are immunoglobulins, acute-phase proteins and apolipoproteins. Although associations of TPNG with T2D have been recently reported by us and others, data on the association between TPNG and T2D complications are scarce. Here, we applied our new ultrahigh-resolution MS method to assess associations of TPNG with T2D complications.

Methods

We determined the TPNG in a subsample of the Hoorn Diabetes Care System cohort (n = 1519 T2D cases and 192 nondiabetic controls from the New Hoorn study cohort) using our Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance MS method. Blood plasma samples were randomized over 21 96-well plates, together with technical replicates. Prior to MS analysis, N-glycans were released using PNGase F. For stabilization and linkage differentiation, sialic acids were derivatized. Released glycans were purified and spotted using an automated liquid handling platform. In total, 68 individual glycan compositions were quantified after total-area normalization and summarized into derived traits representing structural features. By applying logistic regression models, we tested for associations of TPNG with case-control status and micro- or macrovascular complications, such as nephropathy, retinopathy, or cardiovascular disease (cross-sectional). T2D complications were also assessed prospectively by Cox regression. Models were adjusted for age, sex, and T2D risk factors. The outputs were meta-analyzed together with our MALDI-TOF-MS data from the independent cohort DiaGene (1815 T2D cases and 836 controls) which we obtained and described previously.

Results

The recently developed method using MALDI-FTICR-MS improved resolution, mass accuracy, dynamic range and the signal-to-noise ratio, especially for larger glycans, in comparison to our previous MALDI-TOF workflow. The relative standard deviation over the 68 detected glycan species was on average 6.6%, based on the relative intensities from 93 technical replicates of pooled plasma, representing total method repeatability.

We found significant associations of all major glycosylation traits, i.e. sialylation, fucosylation, galactosylation, bisection, and glycan complexity with T2D in the meta-analyses of both cross-sectional and prospective data. For example, the bisection and galactosylation of immunoglobulin-related glycans were associated with macrovascular complications and nephropathy. We aim to confirm these results in the near future on protein-specific level, by isolating IgG prior to released-glycan analysis.

Conclusions

Our new method improved the detection of several glycan species, thus providing possible new insights into the association between TPNG and T2D. Our results will be taken forward to improve personalized approaches in T2D and related complications in the future.

John A. McLean is Stevenson Professor of Chemistry, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, Past Chair of the Faculty Senate, Director of the Center for Innovative Technologies, Deputy Director of the Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education at Vanderbilt University. He received his Ph.D. from George Washington University, was a postdoctoral fellow at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany with Prof. Dr. Sabine Becker, and a postdoctoral at Texas A&M University with Prof. David H. Russell before joining the Vanderbilt Faculty as an assistant professor in 2006. McLean and colleagues focus on the conceptualization, design, and construction of structural mass spectrometers, specifically targeting complex samples in systems, synthetic, and chemical biology. His group applies these strategies to forefront translational research areas in drug discovery, precision medicine, and ‘human-on-chip’ synthetic biology platforms. He served on the board of directors for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and serves in an editorial role on the boards of several leading scientific journals. He has been honored to work closely with the NAS and NSF in several roles, including recently co-authoring an NSF report on big data science in chemistry. He has received many professional and teaching awards including his laboratory being designated as a Waters Center of Innovation and an Agilent Thought Leader Laboratory for their work in ion mobility-mass spectrometry and translational biosciences. He has published over 150 manuscripts and 30 patents in the areas of innovative bioanalytical chemistry and quantitative sciences.

One of the predominant challenges in systems-wide analyses and molecular phenomics is the broad-scale characterization of the molecular inventory in cells, tissues, and biological fluids. Advances in computational systems biology rely heavily on the experimental capacity to make omics measurements, i.e. integrated metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, glycomics, etc., accompanied with fast minimal sample preparation, fast measurements, high concentration dynamic range, low limits of detection, and high selectivity. This confluence of figures-of-merit place demanding challenges on analytical platforms for such analyses. Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) provides rapid (ms) gas-phase electrophoretic separations on the basis of molecular structure and is well suited for integration with rapid (us) mass spectrometry detection techniques. This report will describe recent advances in IM-MS integrated omics measurement strategies in the analyses of complex biological samples of interest in systems, synthetic, and chemical biology in clinical chemistry applications. New advances in bioinformatics and biostatistics will also be described to approach biological queries from an unbiased and untargeted perspective and to quickly mine the massive datasets gathered to provide targeted and actionable information.

Professor Hewison is currently Professor of Molecular Endocrinology in the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR) at The University of Birmingham. He gained his PhD in Biochemistry from Guy’s Hospital Medical School London and then spent nine years at University College London. He then moved to the University of Birmingham where he established the UK’s major vitamin D research group, leading to an appointment as Professor of Molecular Endocrinology in 2004. In 2005 he joined Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles but was then recruited to neighbouring UCLA at the end of 2007 as Professor-in-Residence.In September 2014 Professor Hewison returned to The University of Birmingham to join the newly-established IMSR as Deputy Director.

Professor Hewison has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts focused on various facets of steroid hormone endocrinology, and he is Chair of the Vitamin D Workshop (http://www.vitamindworkshop.org/). He currently has a team of two postdocs, four PhD students and a clinical fellow who are funded by US and UK research grants.

Since starting his postdoc work at UCL London in 1986, Dr Hewison has established a series of studies to investigate the role of vitamin D in immune health and disease. This included the first descriptions of vitamin D metabolism as a feature of normal innate immune function, antigen presentation, and antimicrobial immunity. Following a nine year period at UCLA, Los Angeles, Dr Hewison is now back in the UK at the University of Birmingham where his current interests include the role of cell metabolism in immune responses to vitamin D, and the development of new Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry strategies to better determine vitamin D ‘status’.