LC-MS-based Metabolomics: Workflows, Strategies and Challenges

Metabolomics is the comprehensive analysis of endogenous metabolites in biological specimens. Metabolomics technologies are increasingly used to study metabolism in model systems and for discovery of disease signatures using samples from clinical cohorts. It is a technically challenging field owing to the wide dynamic of concentrations that must be measured as well as the diversity of physical properties among the molecules that constitute the metabolome, for example ranging from polar and acidic compounds of the TCA cycle to nonpolar and neutral compounds like triglycerides. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is an analytical technology that is well matched to this challenge and has found wide use in the field.

In this webinar, Dr. Clary Clish (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) will discuss scientific challenges posed by metabolomics and LC-MS-based measurements and provide an overview of LC-MS workflows. He will describe the utility and limitations of LC-MS methods, what information can be obtained from each, and how to match techniques with experimental questions about the metabolome.

What you will learn in this webinar:
The primary challenges encountered in LC-MS-based metabolomics
Methods for preparing samples, including quality measures
The types of information that can be obtained using this method

Speaker:
Dr. Clary Clish
Broad Institute of MIT
Harvard Medical School

Original Broadcast: June 9th, 2013