The information that regulates the way in which cells recognize and respond to their neighbors resides at the area of contact between them. Cell surface carbohydrates, either conjugated to proteins or lipids, are major components of the cell surface and are now known to have crucial roles in cellular recognition events, including mammalian embryonic development, regulation and mediation of the immune response, and cytokine localization. Changes in their structures have been shown to correlate with various cancer cell metastases and inherited diseases. The research interests of my laboratory focus on:

1. Elucidation of new oligosaccharide structures of glycoproteins using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). This includes the development of new methods in NMR spectroscopy/derivatization specifically tailored to oligosaccharide structural elucidation, and new procedures in liquid chromatography-MS/MS for separating and profiling oligosaccharides from mixtures and identifying candidates involved in interactions with proteins.
2. Studies of glycoprotein-protein interaction. Our current interests are in the specificity of oligosaccharide-protein interactions in the brain.
   We are continuing development of a chemical method for sequential degradation of oligosaccharides from the reducing end. This work also includes developments in reducing end-group analysis and end-group-linkage analysis.
3. Regulation of glycoprotein biosynthesis. An understanding of glycosylation is essentially an understanding of the control of expression, localization in the cell, and regulation of the activities of glycosyltransferases, most of which reside in the Golgi apparatus. We are interested in a number of fundamental aspects of glycoprotein construction, and the flexibility of the system for generating variation in oligosaccharide structures in different cell types.

Ultimately, each cell type is capable of tailoring the synthetic system to generate the specific oligosaccharides it requires; coordination of the biosynthetic machinery in each cell type is currently poorly understood, yet plays a critical role in defining the unique structures found on the surfaces of different cell types.

Education / Experience

• BSc (Cell Biology), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 1977
• MSc (Cell Biology), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 1979
• PhD (Pharmacology), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England 1983
• Posdoctoral Fellow (Biochemistry), Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada 1983-1987
• Postdoctoral Fellow (Biochemistry), Ludwig Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia 1988
• Staff Scientist, the Biomembrane Institute 1988-1994
• Research Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 1988-1994
• Research Associate Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 1995-1996
• Assistant Professor, Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 1996-present

Professional Activities

Honors and Awards

• William Rowan memorial prize 1976
• National Research Council of Canada post-graduate Scholarship 1977,1978
• Commonwealth Scholar (taken in the United Kingdom)
• Medical Research Council of Canada post-doctoral Fellowship 1983-1986

Bibliography

Latest Publications in PubMed

1. Dwivedi, P., Bendiak, B., Clowers, B.H., Hill, H.H. Rapid resolution of carbohydrate isomers by electrospray ionization ambient pressure ion mobility spectrometry-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-APIMS-TOFMS). Journal of the American Society for Mass spectrometry, 2007, 18: 1163-1175.
2. Fang T.T., Bendiak, B. The stereochemical dependence of unimolecular dissociation of monosaccharide-glycolaldehyde anions in the gas phase: A basis for assignment of the stereochemistry and anomeric configuration of monosaccharides in oligosaccharides by mass spectrometry via a key discriminatory product ion of disaccharide fragmentation, m/z 221 Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2007 129:9721-9736
3. Polfer, N.C., Valle, J.J., Moore, D.T., Oomens, J. Eyler, J., Bendiak, B. Differentiation of isomers by wavelength-tunable infrared multiple-photon dissociation-mass spectrometry: application to glucose-containing disaccharides. Analytical Chemistry, 2006, 78: 670-679.
4. Armstrong, G.S., Mandelshtam, V.A., Shaka, A.J., Bendiak, B. Rapid high-resolution four-dimensional NMR spectroscopy using the filter diagonalization method and its advantages for detailed structural elucidation of oligosaccharides. Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2005, 173: 160-168.
5. Armstrong, G.S., Bendiak, B. High-resolution four-dimensional carbon-correlated 1H-1H ROESY experiments employing isotags and the filter diagonalization method for effective assignment of glycosidic linkages in oligosaccharides. Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 2006, 181: 79-88.
6. Bendiak B. Sensitive through-space dipolar correlations between nuclei of small organic molecules by partial alignment in a deuterated liquid solvent. J Am Chem Soc 2002 Dec 18;124(50):14862-3.
7. Bendiak B, Fang TT. End-group determination of oligosaccharides: a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry method for distinguishing between all D-aldohexoses and D-ketohexoses. Carbohydr Res. 2000 Aug 7;327(4):463-81.
8. Jones DN, Bendiak B. Novel multi-dimensional heteronuclear NMR techniques for the study of 13C-O-acetylated oligosaccharides: expanding the dimensions for carbohydrate structures. J Biomol NMR. 1999 Oct;15(2):157-68.
9. Bendiak B. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of peracetylated oligosaccharides having 13C-labeled carbonyl groups in lieu of permethylation analysis for establishing linkage substitutions of sugars. Carbohydr Res. 1999 Feb 28;315(3-4):206-21.
10. Martensson S, Levery SB, Fang TT, Bendiak B. Neutral core oligosaccharides of bovine submaxillary mucin--use of lead tetraacetate in the cold for establishing branch positions. Eur J Biochem. 1998 Dec 1;258(2):603-22.
11. Bendiak B. Preparation, conformation, and mild hydrolysis of 1-glycosyl-2-acetylhydrazines of the hexoses, pentoses, 2-acetamido-2-deoxyhexoses, and fucose. Carbohydr Res. 1997 Oct 28;304(1):85-90.
12. Bendiak, B., Salyan, M.E. and Pantoja, M. Sequential removal of monosaccharides from the reducing end of oligosaccharides. 2. Fundamental studies of a reaction between hydrazine compounds and sugars having a glycosyl moiety on a carbon adjacent to a carbonyl group. J. Org. Chem., 60, 8245-8256 (1995).
13. Tan J, D'Agostaro AF, Bendiak B, Reck F, Sarkar M, Squire JA, Leong P, Schachter H. The human UDP-N-acetylglucosamine: alpha-6-D-mannoside-beta-1,2- N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II gene (MGAT2). Cloning of genomic DNA, localization to chromosome 14q21, expression in insect cells and purification of the recombinant protein. Eur J Biochem. 1995 Jul 15;231(2):317-28.
14. D'Agostaro GA, Zingoni A, Moritz RL, Simpson RJ, Schachter H, Bendiak B. Molecular cloning and expression of cDNA encoding the rat UDP-N-acetylglucosamine: alpha-6-D-mannoside beta-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II. J Biol Chem. 1995 Jun 23;270(25):15211-21.
15. Bendiak B, Ward LD, Simpson RJ. Proteins of the Golgi apparatus. Purification to homogeneity, N-terminal sequence, and unusually large Stokes radius of the membrane-bound form of UDP-galactose:N-acetylglucosamine beta 1-4galactosyltransferase from rat liver. Eur J Biochem. 1993 Sep 1;216(2):405-17.
16. B. Bendiak, M. Harris-Brandts, S.W. Michnick, J.P. Carver, D.A. Cumming. Separation of the complex asparagine-linked oligosaccharides of the glycoprotein fetuin and elucidation of three triantennary structures having sialic acids linked only to galactose residues. Biochemistry, 1989, 28, 6491-6499.
17. Cumming, D.A., Hellerqvist, C.G. Harris-Brandts, M., Michnick, S.W., Carver, J.P. and Bendiak, B. Structures of asparagines-linked oligosaccharides of the glycoprotein fetuin having sialic acids linked to N-acetylglucosamine. Biochemistry, 28, 6500-6512 (1989).
18. D'Agostaro, G.A.F., Bendiak, B., and Tropak, M. Cloning of cDNA encoding the membrane-bound form of bovine b1-4 galactosyltransferase. Eur. J. Biochem., 183, 211-217 (1989).
19. Bendiak, B. and Schachter, H. Control of glycoprotein synthesis. Purification of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:a-D-mannoside b1-2 N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II from rat liver. J. Biol. Chem., 262, 5775-5783 (1987).