The Human Glycome Atlas Project (HGA), which launched in April 2023, aims to perform glycoproteomics on a large cohort of samples, using a detailed human glycan map as a reference, to create a catalog of human glycans related to disease. During the first 5 years of the project, the focus will be on dementia and aging, and 20,000 samples mainly from plasma and serum will be analyzed. In the following 5 years, the scope will be broadened to include various diseases, and 200,000 samples will be targeted for analysis. Our goal is to establish and fully automate a global standard method for analyzing glycoproteomics profiles, enabling the large-scale analysis of glycan structures and the collection of comprehensive glycan data. ...and more
Although glycan structures themselves do not directly depend on template information, their synthesis depends on glycan-related genes, including glycosyltransferases and their protein products. These glycan-related genes are thought to be affected by genomic mutations, DNA methylation, transcription factors, and splicing defects. The susceptibility of proteins to glycosylation may also be altered if the protein sequence contains mutated sequences. However, there are significant technical gaps in the integrated analysis. Although sequencing allows spatiotemporal analysis at the single-cell level, genome-wide integrated analysis at the single-cell level is feasible but not easy to achieve using mass spectrometry. Current glycan analysis technology is limited to probing with glycan-specific antibodies and glycan-binding proteins (GBPs) (lectin, etc.), making it difficult to elucidate biological glycan formation mechanisms at the single-cell level using glycomics alone. Therefore, integrated analysis using single-cell sequencing technology is necessary to understand the mechanism of abnormal glycosylation at the single-cell level. ...and more
In segment 2 of the Human Glycome Atlas Project (HGA), the generation of a large-scale human glycome catalog (total human plasma glycome) is one of the most important missions to construct a database called TOHSA. In this section, we introduce our latest studies, covering 2) the improved analysis of N-glycans by a glycoblotting method in combination with sialic linkage-specific derivatization to distinguish sialylated glycan isomers, and 3) the development of an automated N-glycan preparation instrument for large-scale glycomic analysis of human plasma/serum. ...and more
In April 2023, the Human Glycome Atlas (HGA) Project was started within the framework of the Large-Scale Academic Frontier Promotion Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The HGA Project advocates for the scientific goal of “Clarifying the Truth of the Extended Central Dogma” and has four strategic segments planned to attain this goal. First, the mission of Segment 1 is to “acquire information on human glycan structures at the glycoproteome level”. Glycans are diverse and heterogeneous, and vary depending on producing cells, protein kinds, and glycosylation sites; furthermore, they are described as alterable with change in cellular status. In this segment, the actual status of glycans is explored based on comprehensive information that has been systematically acquired using a standardized approach, rather than piecemeal information acquired fragmentally and compiled individually. First, efforts are underway to elucidate the whole picture of serum and plasma glycoproteins. ...and more
The Human Glycome Atlas Project (HGA) started in Japan in April 2023. This project will raise the level of glycan information availability, which has been remarkably low relative to that of other major biopolymers (nucleic acids and proteins). For this purpose, human glycan structures and their biosynthesis mechanisms will be comprehensively obtained within the HGA. Human glycan structures, together with clinical information and phenotypes, will be catalogued as individual data of a large population. This information will be stored in the knowledgebase TOHSA, and all researchers worldwide will be able to easily incorporate glycan information into their routine research. Thus, the HGA will give scientists a new vision of life and open a new era of life science. ...and more
