Glycomics
Oligosaccharides, either alone or as protein/lipid conjugates, are actively involved in numerous biological phenomena. The complexity of the structure elucidation of carbohydrates arises from the differences in configurational and conformational isomers and variations in the glycan chain structure.
Ion mobility spectrometry, which separates based on the collision cross section of the ion, is fundamentally suitable for the separation of isomeric compounds. In combination with advantages of mass spectrometry, IMS offers a novel and powerful analytical separation and identification tool for structure elucidation of carbohydrates
Three-dimensional IMS-MS spectrum showing separation of disaccharide isomers that differed only in the position of the glycosidic bond
