Metabolomics and Analytical Chemistry Core

Untargeted Metabolomics

The metabolome, or chemical fingerprint of a biological sample reflects human metabolism and exposure to environmental chemicals. Untargeted metabolomics is unsupervised or discovery-based approach to capture chemical exposures without having pre-existing knowledge about identities of metabolites in a biospecimen and is used to discover why people or populations respond differently to changing diets, lifestyles, or medical interventions. Go in-depth

Lipidomic Assays

Lipids are the building blocks of cell membranes and crucial for cell structure, energy metabolism, and signaling. Many metabolic diseases are also characterized by lipid-related abnormalities. A “lipidome” refers to the complete profile of lipid species present in a sample, while “lipidomics” is the study of the lipidome, including its interaction with genes and proteins involved in lipid metabolism. In nutrition research, lipidomics explores the relationship between health, diet, nutrients, and human metabolism – and can be used as a bio-signature to assess health effects or optimize food processing for diet quality. Learn More

Bile acids

These steroid acids are found predominantly in bile and derived from cholesterol metabolism. Bile acids are biomarkers for liver and intestinal microbial function, act as signaling molecules and have roles in health and disease which are not fully understood. They have been implicated in diabetes, hepatic and intestinal cancers, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis. Our Bile acid assay characterizes and quantifies 28 primary and secondary bile acids.

Tryptophan pathway metabolites

Tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine pathway metabolites are aromatic amino acids critical in protein/enzyme structure & function and are precursors for synthesis of neurologically active compounds. They are fundamental in neuronal signaling and have roles in cognitive health, neuronal, & GI health (gut brain axis) which are not fully understood. Our tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine pathway assay characterizes and quantifies 26 pathway metabolites including indoles, kynurenine, and phenols.

Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA)

These metabolites are produced in the intestine from the microbial fermentation of indigestible polysaccharides and polyphenols and have roles in health and disease which are not fully understood but have been implicated in cardiometabolic disorders, obesity, cognition and neurodevelopmental disorders, and immune regulation. Our SCFA Assay characterizes and quantifies 12 short and medium chain fatty acids using 3NPH derivatization protocol.

Amino acids

The building blocks of proteins, amino acids can also be a source of energy. Amino acids are required for the synthesis of neurotransmitters and are used as markers of nutritional, metabolic, and disease status. Our amino acid assay characterizes and quantifies 22 amino acids using Ez:faast Amino Acid Analysis kit for derivatization

Phytochemical and Microbial Metabolomics

Our phytochemical metabolome workflow provides quantitative assays of up to 200 analytes from a library of over 500 dietary phytochemicals and phytochemical derived human and microbial metabolites. Phytochemical metabolites from commonly consumed foods have diverse plasma signatures corresponding to prolonged intestinal absorption and metabolism, driven primarily by intestinal microbiota. Phytochemical intake provides improved markers of diet quality and are inversely associated with disease biomarkers and incidence. Our quantitative workflow provides a metabolic fingerprint which can be used as a metabolic phenotyping tool to capture the impact of the diet and microbial metabolome on biological response to diet.

Acylcartinines

These fatty acid metabolites play important roles in cellular energy metabolism. Traditionally acylcarnitines were used as biomarkers to identify patients with inborn errors of mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism, but more recently are believed to be important indicators of metabolic dysregulation, including metabolic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurologic disorders, depression, and certain cancers.

Phytochemicals

Our targeted quantitative phytochemical assays capture 30-50 analytes within a given high-throughput assay from a library of nearly 600 analytes. Phytochemicals biomarkers of diet quality and are associated with diet induced disease risk reduction.

Carotenoids and lipid soluble vitamins

These markers of diet quality and fruit and vegetable intake and are utilized for normal growth and development, immune system function, and vision. Our assay characterizes and quantifies multiple analytes, including α-Carotene, β-Carotene, β-Cryptoxanthin, Lycopene, Lutein, and Zeaxanthin.

Powerful analytical capabilities for the systematic analysis of metabolites in biological specimens — found at a certain time, under defined conditions

Thermo Q-Exactive Mass Spectrometer

Thermo Q-Exactive hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap MS, with a Thermo/Dionex UltiMate 3000 UHPLC chromatography system

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Thermo Orbitrap Exploris 480 Mass Spectrometer

Thermo Orbitrap Exploris 480 MS coupled with a Vanquish Horizon UHPLC, using AcquireX data acquisition

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SCIEX 7500+ QqQ Mass Spectrometer

Exion High performance UHPLC coupled electrospray 7500+ QqQ MS (SCIEX), using SCIEX OS operational and data acquisition software

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Waters Cyclic Ion Mobility Quadrupole Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer

Waters Cyclic Ion Mobility Quadrupole Time of Flight MS (cIMS) interfaced with a Waters ACQUITY Premier UPLC system running Masslynx software

Delivering cutting-edge analysis

Waters Xevo TQ-S micro QqQ Mass Spectrometer

Waters Xevo TQ-S micro Triple Quadrupole MS running MassLynx Software, integrated with ACQUITY Premier UPLC

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Waters QDa Mass Spectrometer

Waters PDa system, coupled with an H-class ACQUITY UPLC with a QDa mass detector running Empower software

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Metabolomics Images

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