pursuit of cancer biomarkers: liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry platforms for glycomic characterization of biospecimens.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20003303

Glycosylation is a common post-translational modification that plays a pivotal role in many aspects of the host protein function. Aberrant protein glycosylation is strongly associated with malignant transformation of the cells. Therefore a great deal of effort in the field of glycomics has been devoted to discovery of glycan-based cancer biomarkers. Analytical separation mainly in the form of liquid chromatography along with modern mass spectrometry are two key technologies that allow mining ultra-complex biological specimens for detection of disease associated/specific changes in glycosylation. This dissertation describes the development of novel analytical platforms for structural characterization and quantitation of N-glycans released from an isolated plasma glycoprotein as well as whole plasma glycome.