GlyCombo: the first dedicated glycomics workflow on Galaxy
In a win for the international glycomics community, the first dedicated glycomics and carbohydrate software tool is available on the global Galaxy platform thanks to a group of Australian researchers. GlyCombo, a high-throughput tool for glycan (sugar polymers present in protein samples) identification is now providing glycomics researchers with a streamlined, reproducible way to process their complex mass spectrometry (MS) data within Galaxy Australia. The workflow that performs a conversion of raw files, GlyCombo search, and visualisation of results glycan and polysaccharide compositions from mass spectrometry files has been shared through the publication on the GlyCombo Galaxy workflow on WorkflowHub.
The availability of this tool and workflow is the result of collaboration between the Galaxy Australia team and Protea Glycosciences, an innovative Australian glycosciences company based in Wollongong.
Dr Chris Ashwood and Dr Maia Kelly, Protea Glycosciences
By wrapping their open-source GlyCombo tool for Galaxy, Protea Glycosciences has made state-of-the-art analytical techniques accessible to researchers worldwide with just a few clicks.
How GlyCombo simplifies glycomics analysis
Rapid identification of glycans present in MS samples is a cornerstone of glycomics research and is integral to robust glycomics analysis pipelines, yet glycomics research is often limited by a lack of throughput and reproducible data analysis to enable subsequent structural elucidation. Protea Glycosciences was established in 2023 to address this gap, bringing a structure-oriented approach.
While traditional web-based tools utilise point-and-click interactions, GlyCombo enables researchers to rapidly process large-scale, complex MS datasets with greater efficiency and reproducibility. Through text-based commands, glycomics researchers can automate the assignment of monosaccharide combinations, handle multiple adduct searches, and anticipate off-by-one errors, while simultaneously maintaining detailed records of their analytical workflows.
The Galaxy GlyCombo workflow successfully monitored the glycomic consequences of biotransformation, detecting the drastic compositional shifts resulting from sialidase treatment directly within a fully reproducible, browser-based workflow.
Bringing the tool to Galaxy Australia
Protea Glycosciences have wrapped their open source tool for the platform, and the Galaxy Australia team have provided technical support to enable this easy access to the software. The integration of GlyCombo onto Galaxy Australia is a prime example of how national research infrastructure supports the Australian life sciences ecosystem, and how BioCommons and Galaxy Australia support industry-based Research and Development. Hundreds of researchers from Australian small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups use these subsidised services and the generous computational and working data storage quotas to accelerate their work.
“We built GlyCombo as an open-source tool to solve an analytical challenge, but software is only useful if people can run it. Galaxy makes complex workflows reproducible and accessible without local infrastructure or programming expertise. Partnering with Galaxy Australia was a direct path to putting rigorously tested glycomics workflows in front of researchers who need it and lowers the barrier to entry for the broader glycomics community.” - Dr Chris Ashwood, Director, Protea Glycosciences.
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