Opened in January 2016, the University of Missouri Metabolomics Center is located within the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center.
Organisms contain tens to hundreds of thousands of small molecules known as metabolites that serve as energy sources and building blocks for life.
These metabolites hold thousands of clues to the health, performance and environmental responses of organisms. Unlocking their secrets involves advanced, cutting-edge metabolomics capabilities and expertise, which the University of Missouri Metabolomics Center offers to plant, animal and medical sciences researchers on campus and around the world.
Located within the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center, the lab space includes advanced equipment for targeted and nontargeted metabolomics research as well as custom method development for small molecule quantitative and qualitative analyses.
Opened in January 2016, the center also provides regular training workshops to investigators interested in incorporating metabolomics into their research, including an upcoming MU Metabolomics Workshop on Aug. 15-19 focused on sample preparation, and data acquisition, processing and interpretation.
The Metabolomics Center is overseen by Director Lloyd W. Sumner, professor of biochemistry.
What is targeted and nontargeted small molecule/metabolite profiling?
Errors in metabolism and/or metabolic dysregulation can lead to disease (i.e., high blood glucose is diabetes) and/or lower crop yield. Thus, sometimes there is a need to measure specific metabolites or drug treatment levels in a targeted manner to test for specific diseases. Often there is a need to measure very low abundant metabolites in the presence of lots of others. The metabolomics facility offers many targeted metabolite/small molecule/drug profiling methods and can further develop custom methods for most metabolites of interest. These methods are more specific and sensitive for the compounds of interest. There also is a need and benefit to profiling larger numbers of metabolites in aggregate to get a better understanding of overall metabolic and physiological health. The center provides large-scale, nontargeted metabolite profiling that allows for the measurement of hundreds to thousands of metabolites within a few experiments.
What are some of the services offered by the Metabolomics Center?
The MU Metabolomics Center offers targeted and large-scale nontargeted metabolite profiling. Current examples of targeted methods include the analysis of specific developmental drugs, commercial drugs, amino acids, kynurenine, indoxyl sulfate, plant hormones, lignin, bisphenols, fatty acids, bile acids, sphingolipids, ethanol, and the list goes on. We further offer custom methods of development or deployment for customers’ specific molecules of interest. Nontargeted approaches cover large numbers of polar primary metabolites, nonpolar primary metabolites, lipidomics and plant natural products. Most targeted and nontargeted analyses are conducted via high-resolution gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry or ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry detection methods.
How does the center work with external researchers and commercial entities?
We are scientific mercenaries and are eager to work with both academic and commercial collaborators but must support ourselves through fees. These fees can be on an experiment-by-experiment basis, but we typically are more productive if we are collaborators on external state or federally funded projects. The latter provides funding to support the investment of additional time that enables us to vest more heavily in data processing, information extraction, data reporting and data interpretation. Internal MU academic collaborators are supported with subsidized fee rates, but we are charged with full cost recovery for commercial services.
What equipment and capabilities does the center offer?
The MU Metabolomics Core Facility and the Sumner Research Lab currently possess approximately $6 million worth of sophisticated mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance equipment. These investments are further supported with additional investments in centralized nitrogen generation systems, uninterruptable power supplies and necessary data processing systems and software. Full instrumental details are available at https://research.missouri.edu/metabolomics-center and https://sumnerlab.missouri.edu/instrument/.
What are some examples of the center collaborating with MU researchers and those success stories?
We are making a substantial impact with collaborators. We have published 46 scholarly articles since arriving a MU in 2016. Approximately half of these are collaborative publications with internal MU and external researchers. We have a focused effort on cancer that is using metabolite screening to better understand cancer. We also have published in other important scientific areas such as reproduction, microbiomes, beef quality, cardiovascular health, pathogenic bacteria, commensal bacteria, plant specialized metabolism, plant growth and development and plant-microbe interactions. Industry and government clients range from multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences companies to a Colombian coffee business association to academic collaborators.
How does a researcher use the center’s services or start a collaboration with the center (contact info and initial consultation)?
We are happy to consult with all before initiating a project. Potential customers and collaborators are welcome to email or call Drs. Lloyd Sumner or Zhentian Lei to set up an initial discussion of their project. These are easily conducted via videoconferencing or in-person. We will provide feedback on the experimental design, the experimental approach to best address the hypothesis, timelines and estimated costs. Learn more by visiting our About Us page.