Joseph Zaia, PhD Hear my name
Professor
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Biochemistry & Cell Biology

PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS, Bates College



The manner in which a cell responds to many growth factor stimuli depends on interactions between glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), growth factors, and growth factor receptors. Extracellular matrix GAGs binds growth factors, creating morphogens gradients essential to tissue patterning. Because these events depend on the fine structure of the GAG chains present, regulation of GAG biosynthesis is a key factor for understanding normal and disease related cellular growth
The key to exploiting an understanding of GAG structure-function relationships for human disease therapy is to winnow oligosaccharide-protein binding patterns from heterogeneous biological preparations. Toward this end, we have developed mass spectral methods for GAGs that enable comparison of structures as a function of biological variables.

The long term research aims are (1) to develop a fundamental understanding of the manner in which glycosaminoglycan expression is varied according to the cellular growth environment related to human disease and (2) to identify HS chain structures useful as therapeutic targets.

New bioinformatics methods are essential to realizing these goals. The data produced using our methods are information rich and not amenable to manual interpretation. Further, the methods needed are distinct from those used in genomics and proteomics. We are developing bioinformatics methods appropriate for interpretation of structural data on glycosaminoglycans and other carbohydrates to identify targets for disease therapy.

Member
Boston University
Bioinformatics Graduate Program


Member
Boston University
BU-BMC Cancer Center


Member
Boston University
Genome Science Institute


Center Faculty Member
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Mass Spectrometry


Graduate Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences




Methods for measuring matrisome molecule similarity during disease processes
03/01/2022 - 02/28/2027 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
5R35GM144090-04

Cerebrovascular Remodeling and Neurodegenerative Changes in Alzheimer's Disease
02/01/2022 - 01/31/2027 (Multi-PI)
PI: Joseph Zaia, PhD
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5R01AG075876-04

Selecting HA glycosylation for improved vaccine responses
06/09/2021 - 05/31/2026 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
5R01AI155975-05

Proteomics and glycomics of biological samples
01/16/2025 - 01/15/2026 (PI)
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research


Developing new glycosylation analysis techniques and software to enable generation of more effective Influenza A virus vaccines
10/01/2020 - 12/31/2023 (PI)
Waters Technologies Corporation


Measuring glycosylation to improve the influenza A virus vaccine
07/01/2020 - 06/30/2023 (PI)
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center


Involvement of the Extracellular Matrix in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease: a Glycomics and Proteomics study
09/01/2020 - 12/31/2022 (Key Person / Mentor)
PI: Manveen K. Sethi, PhD
Bright Focus Foundation


Methods for determination of glycoprotein glycosylation similarities among disease states
09/01/2019 - 12/31/2022 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
5R01GM133963-03

Glycomics and proteomics of brain specimens
03/15/2018 - 12/31/2022 (Subcontract PI)
The Scripps Research Institute NIH NIDA
5R01DA046170-03

An open-source software suite for processing glycomics and glycoproteomics mass spectral data
08/14/2017 - 07/31/2021 (PI)
NIH/National Cancer Institute
5U01CA221234-03

Showing 10 of 27 results. Show All Results


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2026 Methods for measuring matrisome molecule similarity during disease processes 5R35GM144090-05
2026 Cerebrovascular Remodeling and Neurodegenerative Changes in Alzheimer's Disease 5R01AG075876-05
2025 Methods for measuring matrisome molecule similarity during disease processes 5R35GM144090-04
2025 Cerebrovascular Remodeling and Neurodegenerative Changes in Alzheimer's Disease 5R01AG075876-04
2025 Selecting HA glycosylation for improved vaccine responses 5R01AI155975-05
2024 Methods for measuring matrisome molecule similarity during disease processes 5R35GM144090-03
2024 Cerebrovascular Remodeling and Neurodegenerative Changes in Alzheimer's Disease 5R01AG075876-03
2024 Selecting HA glycosylation for improved vaccine responses 5R01AI155975-04
2023 Methods for measuring matrisome molecule similarity during disease processes 5R35GM144090-02
2023 Cerebrovascular Remodeling and Neurodegenerative Changes in Alzheimer's Disease 5R01AG075876-02
Showing 10 of 151 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Grewal A, Raikundalia S, Zaia J, Sethi MK. Overview of Proteomic Analysis of Amyloid Plaques and Neurofibrillary Tangles in Alzheimer's Disease. Biomolecules. 2025 Sep 11; 15(9).View Related Profiles. PMID: 41008617; PMCID: PMC12467479; DOI: 10.3390/biom15091310;
     
  2. Halvorsen SC, Gkousioudi A, Nicks R, Alvarez VE, Bigio IJ, Zaia J, Stein TD, Zhang Y. Cerebrovascular remodeling in aging and neurodegenerative disease progression. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2025; 13:1597917.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40969224; PMCID: PMC12441360; DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1597917;
     
  3. Wu S, Lu J, Tursumamat N, Liu Q, Liu S, Bian Y, Klein J, Han Z, Zaia J, Lin C, Zhu J, Wei J. Unveiling the Accurate Site-Specific N- and O-Glycosylation of Hyperglycosylated Erythropoietin Drugs by an Integrated Approach. Anal Chem. 2025 Jul 22; 97(28):15410-15419. PMID: 40631521; PMCID: PMC12619957; DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c02433;
     
  4. Nalehua MR, Zaia J. Software Design and Analytical Challenges for Confident Glycopeptide Identification With Data-Independent Acquisition. Mass Spectrom Rev. 2025 Jul 01. PMID: 40590152
     
  5. Mernie E, Zaia J. Recent analytical advances in the detection and characterization of 3-O-sulfated heparan sulfate. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2025 Jul; 417(16):3551-3562.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40328973; PMCID: PMC12595596; DOI: 10.1007/s00216-025-05898-w;
     
  6. Mernie E, Cavallero GJ, Xia C, Lin C, Zaia J. Untangling Heparan Sulfate 3-O-Sulfation Using a Novel Offline Cationic-Peptide Affinity Enrichment, Followed by HILIC-cIM-MS. Anal Chem. 2025 Apr 29; 97(16):8700-8708.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40254935; PMCID: PMC12683643; DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c05019;
     
  7. Rivera AJ, Lee JR, Gupta S, Yang L, Goel RK, Zaia J, Lau NC. Traffic Jam activates the Flamenco piRNA cluster locus and the Piwi pathway to ensure transposon silencing and Drosophila fertility. Cell Rep. 2025 Apr 22; 44(4):115354.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40209716; PMCID: PMC12094058; DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115354;
     
  8. Aoki-Kinoshita KF, Zaia J. Tools and databases for studying data in the glycosciences. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2025 Feb; 417(5):861-863. PMID: 39815128
     
  9. Chatterjee S, Zaia J, Sethi MK. Mass Spectrometry-Based Glycomics and Proteomics Profiling of On-Slide Digested Tissue from Complex Biological Samples. Methods Mol Biol. 2025; 2884:279-303.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39716010; PMCID: PMC12671056; DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4298-6_18;
     
  10. Klein J, Carvalho L, Zaia J. Expanding N-glycopeptide identifications by modeling fragmentation, elution, and glycome connectivity. Nat Commun. 2024 Jul 22; 15(1):6168. PMID: 39039063; PMCID: PMC11263600; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50338-5;
     
Showing 10 of 242 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 242 publications over 36 distinct years, with a maximum of 22 publications in 2011

YearPublications
19851
19872
19911
19921
19943
19951
19964
19971
19983
19993
20003
20014
20022
20034
20043
20053
20068
20072
20087
20098
201011
201122
201211
201316
201410
20158
201610
20175
201811
201911
202014
202111
202213
20239
20247
20259
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

glycomics
glycosaminoglycan
heparan sulfate
heparin
mass spectrometry
proteoglycan
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670 Albany St Biosquare III
Boston MA 02118
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