NIBRT announce collaboration with Agilent

DUBLIN, IRELAND, May 2021 – The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) are delighted to formally announce an on-going collaboration with Agilent for the advancement of glycoengineering and glycoanalysis of biotherapeutics produced in mammalian cells.

The research collaboration will apply the Agilent AdvanceBio portfolio, including glycan sample preparation kits and liquid chromatography columns, to research and develop state of the art methods and technologies around glycoanalysis and biotherapeutics technology at NIBRT. Analysis and control of glycosylation can allow for enhanced drug safety and efficacy of biotherapeutics.
The collaboration has already led to a recent peer-reviewed publication:

• Xie Y, Mota LM, Bergin A, O’Flaherty R, Jones A, Morgan B, Butler M. High-throughput and high-sensitivity N-Glycan profiling: a platform for biopharmaceutical development and disease biomarker discovery. Anal Biochem. 2021 Apr 20:114205. doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2021.114205.  

The collaboration is being led by Professor Michael Butler, NIBRT and includes three members of the NIBRT Cell Technology team. Commenting on the collaboration Professor Butler stated, “This is a very exciting collaboration in which Agilent products are used to analyse monoclonal antibodies so as to maximise their therapeutic efficacy”.

Bethan Morgan, Business Development Manager EMEAI, Agilent: “The field of biotherapeutics is rapidly expanding, with R&D and analytical scientists requiring novel, rapid solutions to support their efforts to improve human health. We are proud to be collaborating with NIBRT to design and optimise techniques in such an important area of science & medicine and are excited to see what we can achieve.”
  
Director, Agilent Technologies Ireland, Kathy Grassick, remarked, “Agilent Technologies values greatly the research and support which NIBRT offers the biopharma industry in Ireland and globally. This collaboration offers us increased confidence in our ability to provide trusted answers to our customers and is one part of the larger investment Agilent is making into biopharma and bioprocessing as a key growth market. We look forward to continuing and enhancing this fruitful collaboration.”

You can download the press release here.