Metabolomics
Metabolomics
Metabolomics (MRG)
Mission
The aims of the Metabolomics Research Group are a) to educate research scientists and resource facilities in the analytical approaches and management of data resulting from comprehensive metabolite studies and b) to promote the science and standardization of metabolomic analyses for a variety of applications. Group efforts will also include conducting surveys and organizing sessions at the annual ABRF meeting to explore the current state of the art in the field and the organization of research studies.
Questions or interest in joining an ABRF research group? Contact us!
Metabolomics is the comprehensive profiling of metabolites and other small molecules. The large structural diversity of these compounds makes both comprehensive profiling and identification challenging. The major platforms are NMR and mass spectrometry, particularly LC/MS and GC/MS. There is currently a great variety of approaches, including untargeted profiling, targeted approaches, and fluxomics. Both semi-quantitative and quantitative approaches can be used. Challenges include identification of metabolites and how they change in relation to a biological perturbation (e.g. drug, diet, disease) and determining the biological significance of these changes. The Metabolomics Research Group consists of members from academic core and research laboratories, industrial analytical laboratories and providers of metabolomic services, analytical standards and instrumentation.
Metabolomics Research Group 2022 Study
- Compound Identification –
Consistent and accurate compound identification is a major challenge for LC/MS based metabolomics. The presence of multiple isomeric compounds, matrix effects, low and varying analyte concentration, and in source fragmentation and adduct formation are major contributing factors to this challenge. A combination of accurate mass MS1, MS2 fragmentation, and retention time (RT) of external standards is frequently used to provide a high confidence, though unconfirmed, compound identification. However, given this information (MS1, MS2, RT) it is unclear how much compound identification success will vary from lab to lab. The aim of this study is to quantify inter-personal and inter-lab variability of compound identification.
The target population of this study are PIs, trainees, and professional staff of metabolomics laboratories. More than one participant from each lab can participate so we can assess not only inter- but also intra-lab variability of compound identification accuracy.
The study participants are provided with two datasets. They have the option to return results for only one dataset or both datasets.
The study material can be downloaded as a single Zip file: https://osf.io/xbgc5/download. It consists of an Excel spreadsheet including instructions and a survey (MRG_CompoundID study.xlsx) and two mzML data files (MS1.mzML and ddMS2.mzML). The Excel file is used for returning results by email.
IMPORTANT: All results are submitted anonymously, identified only by an 8-digit identification number that you select.
Please return your results to mrgabrf2022@gmail.com no later than December 31, 2022.
If you have any questions please contact Ryan Sheldon or Chris Turck.