Biomarkers & diagnostics

Disease-specific glycan biomarker development

Custom-synthesized glycans designed to serve as reference standards for newly identified disease biomarkers. These synthetic glycans enable the development of quantitative assays for clinical validation and diagnostic implementation (for applications in oncology, inflamatory diseases, metabolic diseases, …)

Isotope‑labeled glycan Analytical standards design and synthesis for accurate biomarker quantification

Asparia’s  patented CarboQuant ¹³C‑labeled glycan standards allow absolute quantification of N‑glycans in serum proteins via MS. These synthetic standards allowed the construction of calibration curves and reproducible quantitation in clinical samples.

Conjugate and glycopeptide design for enhanced biomarker detection

Chemical synthesis of glycan–reporter or glycan–capture probe conjugates to improve biomarker detection sensitivity and specificity diagnostic assays. Synthetic glycans, glycomimetics and glycopeptides can be employed to detect disease associated antibodies as biomarkers, like cancer associated anti-MUC1 autoantibodies.

Glycan profiling

Asparia offers a broad glycan profiling service portfolio to detect variations in glycosylation that help identify disease-related biomarkers:

• Prostate cancer diagnostics through PSA glycosylation analysis, where specific glycan changes on the PSA protein achieve 86% diagnostic accuracy in discriminating between healthy and cancerous conditions.
• CA19-9 is a carbohydrate antigen corresponding to the sialylated Lewis-a (SLeᵃ) glycan. It is overexpressed on the surface of pancreatic cancer cells and secreted into the bloodstream. Elevated CA19-9 levels are used clinically as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring treatment response. 
• In inflammatory bowel disease, patients exhibit distinctive plasma N-glycome signatures characterized by increased abundance of large, complex glycans with reduced fucosylation and galactosylation, but enhanced sialylation.
• Multiple sclerosis patients show decreased IgG core fucosylation and increased high-mannose structures, while plasma proteins exhibit elevated antennary fucosylation, trisialylation, and tetrasialylation

General Structural Analysis

• General Structural Assignment Analysis provides the precise identification of disease-associated glycans, enabling their use as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and as potential therapeutic targets in immune and inflammatory diseases. By characterizing aberrant glycosylation patterns, such as changes in antibody glycan profiles or cell-surface glycans, specificity and accuracy of disease detection and monitoring can be substantially improved—for example, identifying altered glycosylation on immunoglobulins or cell-surface proteins enhances disease screening and patient stratification.

• Elevated levels of certain monosaccharides, like fucose or sialic acid, are frequently associated with disease progression, immune cell activation, and mechanisms of immune evasion. This is the reason why the Monosaccharide Composition Analysis, is key to studying the samples’ composition, and help to develop new vaccine antigens. 
• HTP N-glycan profiling (sera, plasma) provides scalable, sensitive detection of disease-associated glycan signatures, improving early diagnosis, patient stratification, and therapeutic monitoring

Glycoproteomics

• N-glycosylation Site Occupation Analysis & Glycosylation Site-specific Glycan Profile:  can identify partially glycosylated or abnormally glycosylated sites, uncovering changes in proteins related to disease progression. For example, MUC1 is hipoglycosylated in several types of cancers.
• Intact mass service helps to confirm the complete molecular weight, detect PTMs, truncations, and glycoforms, which are critical to biomarker function and specificity.

Microarray Technology

• Lectin Arrays are widely used in disease biomarker discovery to identify aberrant glycosylation patterns, helping in biomarker discovery, patient stratification, and monitoring treatment responses.

• Glycan Arrays help reveal disease-specific glycan–immune interactions, helping to identify biomarkers, understand immune dysregulation, and guide therapeutic or vaccine development in immune and inflammatory diseases.