The role of the LTQ-Orbitrap in metabolic profiling of mammalian metabolomes
Warwick Dunn1
1Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, University of Manchester
The investigation of the total complement of endogenous and exogenous metabolites in a biological system (microbial, plant, mammalian) is termed metabolomics. The total collection of thousands of metabolites, termed the metabolome, provide complex systems to study and the detection and identification of all metabolites is currently not feasible. The coupling of sub-2µm high performance liquid chromatography with the LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry system has provided a powerful platform for the detection and identification of 100-1000s of metabolites in a single analytical run. Currently, the Bioanalytical Sciences Group at The University of Manchester employ sub-2µm HPLC coupled to the LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry system as a tool to investigate mammalian metabolomes
In this presentation the advantages of the platform for metabolic profiling of complex metabolomes is discussed including the investigation of pre-eclampsia and heart failure. Also the characterisation of metabolites employing a range of strategies (accurate mass, MS/MS and mass spectral libraries) will also be discussed.