Development of LC/MS Techniques for Comprehensive Metabolome Analysis

Metabolomics is a rapidly evolving field for studying biological systems and discovering potential disease biomarkers. For any metabolomics application, metabolome analysis with adequate sensitivity and specificity is essential in defining the metabolome. Ideally, all metabolites present in a biological system are qualitatively and quantitatively profiled. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, only a fraction of metabolites are currently analyzed by using techniques such as NMR and mass spectrometry (MS). Due to limited metabolome coverage, many important metabolome networks and some subdue changes in the metabolome may not be revealed with current techniques. In this presentation, several technical issues related to the development of LC/MS for enabling metabolome analysis will be discussed. Because of great diversity of chemical and physical properties of metabolites, we have been developing an isotope labeling LC/MS workflow with a goal of improving the metabolome coverage in analyzing biological samples such as human biofluids and tissue samples. Several labeling chemistries will be described to provide isotope tags to the metabolites for sensitive detection and accurate quantification. LC methods including multi-dimensional separation to separate the labeled metabolites with high efficiency will be discussed. New protocols for MS analysis, metabolite identification and quantitative data processing will be presented.