Metabolomics

Metabolomics is the study of small molecule metabolites that are produced and consumed by chemical reactions throughout biological systems. Mass spectrometry based metabolomics facilitates the measurement of ionizable components in a biological sample and subsequent identification of these metabolites using high resolution accurate mass measurements, isotopic distribution calculations for molecular formula determination and fragmentation matching using tandem mass spectrometry fingerprints. Metabolomics studies provide a snapshot of the metabolite profile under various study conditions (e.g., control vs. diseased) and the results offer insight to the perturbation of biological pathways. Front end separations typically involve liquid chromatography and routine methods for untargeted studies are often divided between polar (e.g., amino acids, sugars, organic acids) and non-polar metabolites (e.g., lipids).