SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REPRESENTING N-LINKED GLYCAN STRUCTURES

摘要

A fixed-length alpha-numeric code for representing N-linked glycan structures commonly found in secreted glycoproteins from mammalian cell cultures. The code employs a pre-assigned alpha-numeric index to represent the monosaccharides attached in different branches to the core glycan structure. The present branch-centric representation allows visualization of the structure while the numerical nature of the code makes it machine readable. A difference operator can be defined to quantitatively differentiate between glycan structures for further analysis. The code can be incorporated in a retrievable format into an information management system. A method is also provided for representing the structure of at least a portion of an oligosaccharide, using the fixed-length alpha-numeric code.