It's great see our PhD student, Helen Wright, being recognised for her work to help map glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, expressed in CHO cells at the University of Sheffield. For the full story about the antibody testing project led by Professor David James, see: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cbe/news/sheffield-engineers-manufacture-sars-cov-2-virus-components-covid-19-antibody-tests
Helen has been at home stuck in front a computer for weeks working through bioinformatics pipelines to map sugars on the spike protein. The protein was expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells by the James Group.
Her methods of analyses will be useful for mapping glycosylation through her PhD project. She relied on sifting through spectral files for samples that has been run on an Orbitrap mass spectrometer by collaborators Prof. Mark Dickman, Dr. Caroline Evans and Dr. Phil Jackson in CBE.
Preparing custom glycoprotein databases has not been easy- a readout from the Matrix Science software is shown below together with a workflow from an article that demonstrates the theory. Interested in knowing more? Email Helen: helen.wright@sheffield.ac.uk
