Joseph Zaia
Boston University, MA·Chemistry
Many proteins carry sugar chains, a modification called glycosylation, and these sugars change how the proteins work. In disease, the sugar patterns shift, but it has been hard to compare these structures accurately between samples.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
glycoproteomics
glycomics
glycosylation
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2027
What they work on
- Identify glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), long sulfated sugar chains, attached to specific brain matrisome proteins, using an Omnitrap mass spectrometry platform to analyze peptides carrying several sugar chains.
- Measure molecular similarity of matrisome glycoproteins across brain regions and ages using a Waters Cyclic ion mobility-mass spectrometer and statistical bioinformatics.
- Map site-specific glycosylation of influenza hemagglutinin (HA) in representative H1N1 strains with glycoproteomics, defining the mix of sugar forms at each site.
- Relate HA glyco-populations to immunogenicity using molecular modeling and antigenic cartography, to guide HA sequence choice for recombinant vaccines.
More about the research
Antibody-based tests often miss the changes. The research measures sugar-coated proteins with mass spectrometry, which weighs molecules very precisely to identify them. It applies these tools to two problems: how the brain's support proteins change with age and disease, and how sugars on the influenza virus help it escape immunity.
Why it matters
Matrisome methods could reveal disease-related changes in brain extracellular proteins that antibody tests miss, which is relevant to aging, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease. Influenza A causes an average of 36,000 U.S. deaths each year. Knowing which HA sugar patterns trigger the strongest immunity could guide the design of recombinant flu vaccines, which can be made in advance of seasonal or pandemic strains.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yoshihiro Kawaoka
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Engineer influenza B hemagglutinin mutants whose antigenic properties lie between the virus's two major lineages, using mutagenesis, to create antigens that may elicit antibodies protecting against both lineages.
Linda C Hsieh-Wilson
California Institute of Technology, CA·Chemistry
Map glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the hypothalamus and disrupt them in animal models to test effects on food intake, body weight and blood sugar control.
Francisco Fernandez-Lima
Florida International University, FL·Chemistry
Develop mass spectrometry workflows that combine solution labeling, trapped ion mobility spectrometry (which separates ions by shape) and electron- or UV-based fragmentation to study biomolecular complexes near their native state.
The school
Boston University: 26 labs on PI Pages, $784M a year on research, 630 research doctorates a year.
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