Patent ID: 8653448

Claim:
A method for analyzing a glycan structure of a test material having a glycan, comprising the steps of: (a) measuring specific types of product ions produced from the test material at various values of CID energy by MS/MS; (b) creating an energy-resolved profile including yield curves representing relationships between (i) the values of the CID energy and (ii) measured amounts of the respective specific types of product ions; (c) preparing a reference profile including yield curves representing relationships between (i) the values of the CID energy and (ii) measured amounts of respective same types of product ions produced from a reference test material as the specific types of product ions, the reference test material being a test material having a glycan and whose structure is known; and (d) identifying the glycan structure of the test material by comparing the energy-resolved profile obtained in the step (b) with the reference profile, the specific types of product ions including at least two types of product ions derived from a protonated monosaccharide or disaccharide, and in the step (a), the measurement by MS/MS being carried out by use of a mass spectrometer which causes no Low-mass cutoff.