Metabolomics

People on extended cranes spraying water on a water wheel, with mountains in the background and a river in the foreground

We use the latest analytical techniques - including mass spectrometry, NMR, and stable isotope labelling – to study and understand cell metabolism in the context of health and disease.

Metabolomics can be broadly regarded as the measurement of the thousands of metabolites present in a biological system at any given time or under specific conditions.

This can provide a sensitive snap-shot of the physiology of the cell and how it is impacted by environmental and genetic factors. More than that, metabolomics is a powerful method for revealing novel or unanticipated metabolites and metabolic pathways, while exquisite detail of metabolic activity can be measured.

While still a relatively young field, metabolomics has established itself as critical in understanding cell biology, infection, disease, and beyond.

Here at the Crick, we use bespoke approaches that are individually tailored to answer each biological question.

Our expertise covers metabolite profiling and targeted approaches, with stable isotope labelling being central to much of our work.

Our instrumentation covers a variety of hyphenated mass spectrometry techniques (including liquid, gas and supercritical fluid chromatography-mass spectrometry), while we also employ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy through interaction with the MRC NMR facility, also located here at the Crick.