Dr. Adam Hawkridge
VCU
Friday, February 6, 2026
12:00 Noon
Meyerhoff Chemistry BuildingRoom 120
Host: Dr. Kamal Senvirante
“Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies for Studying Complex Carbohydrates”
Complex carbohydrates such as N-/O-linked branched chain glycans and linear glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are structurally diverse protein post-translational modifications that play important roles in the immune system, cancer, hemostasis, infection, and neurological development. Although profound phenotypes are observed for experimental models or disease states connected to complex carbohydrate
biosynthetic dysregulation (e.g., gene silencing, mutation), establishing qualitative and quantitative measures of biological complexity imparted from these carbohydrate structures (i.e., structure-function) is exceedingly difficult. Unlike genes, transcripts, and proteins; the full repertoire of complex carbohydrate structures (i.e., glycome) is unknown due to these biomolecules lacking a biosynthetic template to aid
identification. Thus, the development of glycoanalytical methods, technologies, and data analysis tools are needed to identify functionally significant complex carbohydrate structures that could unlock untapped dimensions in biology. This seminar will focus on the following glycoanalytical developments in my lab: 1.) glycosaminoglycan (e.g., heparin, heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate) composition and
structural analysis by CE- and LC-MS/MS, 2.) TMT-based LC-MS/MS comparative glycoproteomics analysis (e.g., N-/O-glycopeptides), and 3.) chemoproteomics strategies for identifying glycoconjugate-protein interactions.