Steve Fischer

The metabolomics workflow described here combines untargeted (discovery) quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), targeted (confirmation) triple-quadrupole LC–MS-MS, and sophisticated data mining as an effective means to elucidate metabolite changes.

Metabolomics is a developing analytical approach that is growing rapidly in importance as a tool to improve diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as to speed up the drug development process. Unlike genomics or proteomics, which only reveal part of what might be happening in a cell, metabolomic profiling can give an instantaneous snapshot of the entire physiology of that cell. This article describes the challenges associated with metabolomics research and new tools developed to overcome them.