Adelaide Glycomics

Who We Are

Adelaide Glycomics was launched in August 2016 and is a collaboration between the University of Adelaide and Agilent Technologies Australia Pty Ltd.

Glycoscience is a constantly expanding field that explores the structural and functional properties of complex carbohydrates or ‘glycans’. Glycans are critical in every area of biology and have important applications in biotechnology, medicine and industry.Adelaide Glycomics provides Australian researchers from the academic and private sectors with the necessary infrastructure and expertise to remain at the forefront of Glycoscience research internationally.

Our mission

Adelaide Glycomics aims to support fundamental and applied aspects of Glycoscience research by enabling the fine characterisation of glycans from any biological origin and at every structural level, from sugar composition to 3-dimensional organisation. The laboratory helps addressing key fundamental and applied scientific questions relevant to, e.g., Agriculture, Food Sustainability, Health & Nutrition, Bioenergy, Biomaterials and Quality of Life.

With its highly-qualified team of analysts and suite of high-end instruments Adelaide Glycomics has the capacity to:

• Determine monosaccharide composition of glycans
• Determine the types of glycosidic linkage in glycans after chemical derivatization
• Separate carbohydrate epitopes and determine their accurate mass
• Perform enzymatic fingerprinting of complex polysaccharides
• Develop and apply methodologies for glycan ‘sequencing’
• Determine the molecular weight and polydispersity of polysaccharides in solution, including resilient polysaccharides
• Determine molecular dimensions of complex polysaccharides in solution
• Define relationships between composition, structure, reactivity and physico-chemical properties of glycans

Key areas of impact

Food Quality and Nutrition

• Functional food
• Control of food properties
• Health-promoting grains for food and beverages
• Impact of glycans on the gut microbiome
• Food for infants

Agriculture, Microbial and Plant Sciences

• Managing and adding value to waste streams generated by agriculture
• Understanding plant cell wall structure and metabolism for improvement of agricultural crops
• Plant developmental biology

Wine Sciences

• Controlling the composition and quality of wines

Biopharmaceutical, Therapeutic and Human Health Applications

• Controlled therapeutic molecule uptake/release from biomaterial surfaces
• Development of new methods for disease and cancer diagnosis and management

Marine Biorefinery

• Marine bioproducts characterisation and development

Biological Materials

• Structural and functional carbohydrate-based materials for multiple applications including, e.g., cosmetics, composite materials, scaffolding structures, aerogels, hydrogels, films, emulsions, drug delivery systems, bioactive surfaces  (biosensing & biofouling)