Dr Andy Chetwynd has been awarded a £50,000 Vasculitis UK grant
Vasculitis UK has recently awarded a £50,000 grant to Dr Andy Chetwynd, Professor Claire Eyers and Dr Louise Oni to purchase a laser-induced fluorescence detector for our existing capillary electrophoresis (CE-LIF) instrument in the Centre of Proteome Research. The grant will allow us to perform high throughput N-glycan characterisation of IgA and biofluids such as blood products and urine from patients with IgA vasculitis (IgAV) and IgAV with associated nephritis (IgAVN). This work sits alongside an existing kidney research UK grant held by Professor Eyers and Dr Oni characterising O-glycans in the same cohort. However, the role of N-linked glycans in IgAV and IgAVN is yet to be explored in paediatric cohorts. There is limited data suggesting that in adult cohorts with IgA-nephrology that N-glycans may be more predictive of patients that go on to develop worse renal outcomes. With this CE-LIF we will be able to release N-linked glycans from proteins such as IgA and IgG, and fluorescently label them before separating and detecting them. This will enable rapid screening of N-glycans in biofluids and can be applied to future studies as a screening mechanism for N-glycan changes in health and disease.