Metabonomics

Partners: Imperial College and Novo Nordisk

Metabolic profiling is a complex process generating large amounts of data for analysis to reveal information about metabolic pathways and networks, novel biomarkers, and how metabolites interact not only with genes (genomics) and proteins (proteomics), but also with nutritional, environmental, and lifestyle factors.  The goal of WP2 within the MolPAGE programme is to develop a low-volume high-throughput metabonomic approach which can be deployed on a range of biological fluids including plasma and urine in large-scale epidemiological studies. 

WP2 are developing high-throughput approaches for two complementary metabonomic technology platforms; biofluid nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and the less mature technology of laser capture mass spectrometry. In terms of qualitative and quantitative power the application of both analytical techniques offers a more extensive metabolite picture than either platform alone.  The MolPAGE platforms will be used to characterise the endogenous metabolites in human biological samples from the WP1 collections, from subjects with vascular or metabolic disorders and in animal models of disease, with a view to identifying metabolite profiles or biomarkers associated with common disease phenotypes. WP2 are working closely with WP1 to optimise sample collection procedures, with WP8 in the construction of web-based tools for sharing of metabonomic data and WP9 for subsequent processing and analysis of data.