Scottish metabolomics facility

ScotMet: The Scottish Metabolomics Facility

Metabolomics is a relatively new innovation in biological and biomedical research, which simultaneously measures many metabolites that represent the dynamic status of a living system. Environmental perturbations or genetic changes are reflected in changes in metabolite levels (metabonomics). Metabolomics/metabonomics is, therefore, a key tool in systems biology and systems medicine. The Scottish Metabolomics Facility is funded by the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) and is a state of the art facility combining mass spectrometry, separations technology and bioinformatics. It is a collaboration between the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde and builds on long-standing expertise in separations technology, mass spectrometry, bioinformatics and systems biology at these centres.

Aims

ScotMet aims to provide a world-class facility, with a focus on systems biology, staffed by experts in metabolomics working closely with leaders in the fields of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics who can provide training, sample analysis and collaboration on experimental design and data handling.

Instrumentation

Available equipment includes four Orbitrap mass spectrometers plus GC-MS facilities. As a rapidly growing facility acquisition of further equipment to expand the ultra-high resolution MS capability and to provide additional orthogonal data generation capabilities is in progress. We have developed, through collaboration, bespoke software to process raw data into meaningful biology as well as using commercially available software.

Current projects

Metabolomics in relation to adaptation and resistance in Leishmania and Trypanosoma.

Mapping the Drosophila metabolome.

Interaction between Toxoplasmosa and the mammalian host.

Adaptive response of cultured cells to hypoxia.

Metabonomics in glucocorticoid block and metabolic syndrome.

Analysis of urine metabolites to determine biomarker evolution in pre-eclampsia.

In addition to biological projects, we are committed to technology development, especially novel orthogonal separation techniques for challenging samples.

Management Committee

Chair: Prof. Mike Barrett

Dr. Dave Watson

Dr. Richard Burchmore

Dr. Andy Pitt

Dr. Karl Burgess