MetaboNews -- April 2017
MetaboNews Masthead
Published in partnership between
TMIC and the Metabolomics Society
Issue 68 - April 2017

CONTENTS:


Online version of this newsletter:
 http://www.metabonews.ca/Apr2017/MetaboNews_Apr2017.htm
TMIC Services
TMIC Services

Welcome to the sixty-eighth issue of MetaboNews, a monthly newsletter published in partnership between The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC, http://www.metabolomicscentre.ca/) and the international Metabolomics Society (http://www.metabolomicssociety.org/), to keep metabolomics researchers and other professionals informed about new technologies, software, databases, events, job postings, conferences, training opportunities, interviews, publications, awards, and other newsworthy items concerning metabolomics. MetaboNews represents the one-stop-shop for the very latest and most critical news about the science of metabolomics. In this issue, we feature a Metabolomics Spotlight article titled "Comprehensive Metabolite Identification Strategy using Multiple 2D NMR Spectra of a Complex Mixture Implemented in the COLMARm Web Server", and a metabolomics interview with Clary Clish of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (USA).
This issue of MetaboNews is supported by:

Chenomx -- Metabolite Discovery & Measurement
Chenomx Inc.

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Metabolomics Society Logo

Metabolomics Society News

CONFERENCE CORNER 

13th Annual Conference of the International Metabolomics Society - Author: Horst Schirra
25th – 29th June, 2017, Brisbane, Australia

Breaking News: The deadlines for Oral Abstract Submission and for Early Bird Registration Fees have been extended to Monday, 10th April. This is your last chance to get your oral abstract in and take advantage of reduced registration fees. Poster abstracts are also welcome. Please refer to the conference website for further details. Showcase your groundbreaking research and join us at Metabolomics2017!
Submit your abstract NOW for a chance to present at Metabolomics 2017.

We welcome abstracts across a variety of topics and themes, noted on the conference website. Share this news with your peers and make your plans to join us this June for the international meeting of the Metabolomics Society! Click here for more information.
Helpful links to more conference information:
 Brisbane Workshops
An exciting line-up of workshops is being developed for the conference in Brisbane. Below is the current list of workshops scheduled for Sunday and Monday June 25 and 26. For the complete schedule and descriptions, click here. Some workshops have limited spaces available, so register soon to make sure you get the best spots!
 NEW FOR 2017: 5 Plenary Speakers
Newly confirmed, we have FIVE plenary speakers on the schedule for Metabolomics 2017. Click on their names below to learn more about our exciting plenary line-up.
5 Keynote Speakers
In addition, we have the following five KEYNOTE speakers in the conference program for Metabolomics 2017. Go to the keynote page to learn more about our fantastic keynote line-up.
 Click here for all the conference details: http://Metabolomics2017.org
Make the most of your trip to Brisbane, click the logos below to learn more about local attractions.
Brisbane
          
Queensland


MEMBERS CORNER

Board of Directors - Author: Jules Griffin, Metabolomics Society President

Words from the Chair
If you haven’t been on a Board of Directors’ teleconference (TC) meeting, I think it’s fair to warn you that some of the telephone conferences can be rather long. One of the very useful pieces of advice I was given by one of my predecessors, Mark Viant, was to pour a large glass of red wine and when you are running out of wine then it is time to speed up the meeting! Well the wine was long gone when we finished but the feeling was a lot of progress is being made across the Society. Nichole Reisdorph updated us on the Society’s finances; I’m happy to report that we are in good shape and able to fund a number of new initiatives including a new travel grant initiative from the EMN. We also sorted out the legal details for the society’s forum so if you have an opinion on any of the subjects influencing the field, I encourage you to make your voice heard on the forum. We’re particularly keen to hear your views on what you would like to get out of the Society as member benefits and what you look for in a journal.

One of the major conversations of the TC focused on the Election of Honorary fellows. We have two fellowships to elect and these are the most prestigious awards the Society can bestow. There are two categories: (i) individuals that have made a significant impact on the field of metabolomics and (ii) individuals that have made a significant contribution to the Society. These categories are not mutually exclusive, and any member can nominate someone for election to an honorary fellowship. What was nice about the nominations is that we had representation across the globe and also a number of women nominees, which was pleasing shortly after International Women’s Day. So next month we will vote on the nominations and I should have the names of the two new fellows next MetaboNews. One of the topics that meant I was definitely out of wine by the end of the call was the Society’s journal. This is still an ongoing issue and one where frustratingly we can’t report on as often as we would like to the membership. This is because some of these discussions are confidential between the Board and the publishers but I hope to have more news soon. I think that’s all for now as I need to get back to my abstract for Brisbane!


INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES CORNER

 Australian & New Zealand Metabolomics Network (ANZMN) - Author: Oliver Jones
Visit http://www.anzmn.org

If you want to research applications of NMR spectroscopy in New Zealand, Callaghan Innovation (a government agency that helps businesses succeed through technology) has a position available for a NMR Facilities Coordinator in their Integrated Biotechnologies Group. If you would like to work in a stimulating, collaborative environment with a dedicated team of scientists, they would like to hear from you. This role would suit someone who is confident with NMR spectroscopy and is looking for a new challenge. See https://vacancies.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/jobdetails/ajid/aHDh7/NMR-Facilities-Operator,5842.html for the details.

Netherlands Metabolomics Centre (NMC) - Author: Merlijn van Rijswijk
Visit www.metabolomicscentre.nl/

Metabolomics Implementation Network in European Open Science Cloud Launched

On March 10, 2017 one of the very first Implementation Networks in the European Open Science Cloud was launched by Professor Karel Luyben, chairman of the GO FAIR initiative, on Metabolomics data and services. GO FAIR is an early-mover-driven initiative of European member states to start working on a trusted environment where public and private sector partners can deposit, find, access, exchange, and reuse each other’s data, workflows and other research objects. The launch of the network was the result of a two-day European workshop with over 25 participants in Leiden, The Netherlands, funded by the PhenoMeNal H2020 e-infrastructure project. The initiative aims to collectively implement standards compliant with FAIR principles with the wider research community and to actively communicate these. The initiative will work closely together with the Metabolomics Society and reach out to other communities on better capturing and understanding phenotypes, enabling integrated approaches. More information is available at http://phenomenal-h2020.eu/home/outreach/.

A workshop on establishing a Metabolomics Use Case in ELIXIR is scheduled for April 25, 2017. The PhenoMeNal H2020 e-infrastructure project and the Netherlands Metabolomics Centre, in coordination with ELIXIR-NL and ELIXIR-DE, will jointly organize this one day strategic workshop in Frankfurt, Germany.  ELIXIR is a distributed infrastructure for life science information, bringing together resources across Europe including databases, software tools, training materials, cloud storage and supercomputers. In the context of ELIXIR, the main goal of the workshop is to identify the core needs of the metabolomics community (at different levels) with regards to life science computing-related infrastructure such as public databases, data standards, open analysis tools, and cloud-based solutions. In the fast-moving field of computational services, it is of utmost importance to keep emerging needs, developments, and investments aligned, and prevent dead-end developments. In addition, other more general needs (in the wider context of ELIXIR) could be outlined (e.g., multi-omics data integration). As a result, we will write a paper describing the needs and a plan to implement the required infrastructure and services in ELIXIR. The workshop is co-funded by PhenoMeNal and the MetaboLights database project. For more information, please contact vanrijswijk@metabolomicscentre.nl or christoph.steinbeck@uni-jena.de


 
 Software Spotlight

Metabolomics Spotlight

Comprehensive Metabolite Identification Strategy using Multiple 2D NMR Spectra of a Complex Mixture Implemented in the COLMARm Web Server

 Feature article contributed by Kerem Bingol1#, Da-Wei Li2#, Bo Zhang3 and Rafael Brüschweiler2,3,4

1Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
2Campus Chemical Instrument Center, 3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 4Department of Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States

#These authors contributed equally to this work

Two-dimensional (2D) NMR-based metabolite identification has made significant progress in recent years. In our research, customized metabolomics databases for the querying of 2D HSQC and TOCSY experiments have proven instrumental to significantly increase the accuracy of metabolite identification. The 13C-TOCCATA customized database is optimized for the querying of 13C-13C TOCSY spectra of uniformly 13C- labeled metabolomics samples, whereas the 1H(13C)-TOCCATA customized database permits the querying of 1H-1H TOCSY and 13C-1H HSQC-TOCSY spectra of complex metabolite mixtures at natural 13C abundance. A key feature of the TOCCATA databases is that they sort the spectral information of each metabolite into individual spin systems and slowly interchanging isomers matching the information directly obtainable from these spectra. This significantly increases the accuracy (reliability) and confidence of metabolite identification based on these types of experiments. Following a similar philosophy, the COLMAR HSQC metabolomics database was developed for the querying of 13C-1H HSQC spectra by sorting the HSQC spectra of metabolites into individual slowly interchanging isomeric states. This improves the query result, since it is insensitive to the relative populations of different isomers, which sometimes can be quite uneven. The unambiguous detection of one isomer per compound is then sufficient for a successful query when the other isomer(s) are below the detection limit.

Although HSQC and TOCSY-type spectra each provide powerful information on their own, their combined use could further improve the reliability of metabolite identification. However, the complementary nature of these experiments has limited their combined use. At present, they are used primarily for separate and independent querying against HSQC and TOCSY metabolomics databases, respectively, without taking advantage of potential synergies.

Here, we introduce an integrated metabolite identification and validation approach, COLMARm, which combines the unique strengths of 2D HSQC and TOCSY-type experimental data. The approach allows the simultaneous analysis of multiple 2D NMR spectra, namely 13C-1H HSQC, 1H-1H TOCSY, and 13C-1H HSQC-TOCSY, thereby improving the accuracy and scope of NMR-based metabolite identification of complex mixtures. The approach is implemented in the new COLMARm web server, which is public and which provides a large number of interactive capabilities that enable the comprehensive identification and analysis of a large number of metabolites from a single sample in a way that is intuitive and efficient. Presently, COLMARm is the most advanced and most interactive web server within the COLMAR suite of web servers.

COLMARm is illustrated here for a human serum sample collected from a pool of healthy individuals. After uploading of serum HSQC, TOCSY, and HSQC-TOCSY spectra to COLMARm, the contour levels of the HSQC spectrum were adjusted first using the slider above the spectrum. Next, automated peak picking was performed and the resulting peak list was queried against COLMARm. The returned metabolite hits were visually inspected. Figure 1 illustrates the protocol for serum for the identification of isoleucine. The experimental HSQC peaks of isoleucine (green circles) match reasonably well the database chemical shifts of isoleucine (red circles) (Figure 1A). A small shift can be observed because of differences in pH and ionic strength between the serum sample and the sample used for database entry despite pH adjustment before the measurement. Observation of the cross-peak connectivity patterns of isoleucine in serum TOCSY (Figure 1B) as well as HSQC-TOCSY (Figure 1C), which were consistent with the expected cross-peak patterns from the database, validate the presence of isoleucine in serum. By using this protocol, we identified 62 distinct metabolites in serum, 14 of them were identified in human serum for the first time by using NMR. It highlights the convenience and power of COLMARm for the important task of the accurate and comprehensive metabolite identification in metabolomics.




Figure 1. Illustration of COLMARm for the identification of isoleucine in human serum by the co-analysis of (A) HSQC, (B) TOCSY, and (C) HSQC-TOCSY. Green and red circles represent experimental and database cross-peaks of isoleucine, respectively, whereas magenta circles represent the expected isoleucine peaks according to the TOCCATA database. The close match between green and red circles identifies isoleucine as a strong candidate. This was validated by the good agreement found for the expected magenta peaks with the experimentally observed TOCSY and HSQC-TOCSY cross-peaks.

Literature Reference to COLMARm
Publication
  • Bingol, K.; Li, DW.; Zhang, B.; Brüschweiler, R. “Comprehensive metabolite identification strategy using multiple 2D NMR spectra of a complex mixture implemented in the COLMARm web server” Anal. Chem. 2016, 88, 12411-12418.
Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant R01 GM 066041 and SECIM (Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics) grant U24 DK097209-01A1).


Please note: If you know of any metabolomics research programs, software, databases, statistical methods, meetings, workshops, or training sessions that we should feature in future issues of this newsletter, please email Ian Forsythe at metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com.
 MetaboInterview Icon

MetaboInterview
This section features interviews with prominent researchers in the field of metabolomics. The aim of these interviews is to shed light on metabolomics researchers around the world and give them an opportunity to share their metabolomics story. In this issue, we feature an interview with Clary Clish.
Clary Clish

 Director, Metabolite Profiling, Metabolite Profiling Platform, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Clary Clish
Biography

Clary Clish is the director of the Metabolomics Platform at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Working in collaboration with both Broad Institute scientists and members of the greater scientific community, he has led many efforts to apply metabolomics to study human cohorts and identify early metabolic derangements that precede clinical diagnosis of disease. Clish also leads numerous efforts to discover metabolic dependencies and phenotypes in model systems, with projects focused on cancer, cardiometabolic diseases, aging, inflammation, host-microbe interactions, and other areas of biology. Prior to joining the Broad, Clish held senior and executive management positions in the biotechnology industry from 2001 to 2008, including Vice President of Discovery at Gene Logic Inc. and Director of Metabolite Biochemistry at Beyond Genomics Inc. From 1997 to 2001, Clish was a postdoctoral fellow and instructor in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Serhan at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Metabolomics Interview (MN, MetaboNews; CC, Clary Clish)

 MN: How did you get involved in metabolomics?

CC: I was first introduced to metabolite profiling when I joined Charlie Serhan’s laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School as a research fellow in 1997. My work focused on discovery and characterization of lipid mediators of inflammation. Charlie’s lab had acquired a Finnigan LCQ (a benchtop 3D-ion trap MS) months before I came on board and I became responsible for its use just a couple of days after I started. I had never used an LC-MS instrument before—my technical background was in NMR—so it was an exciting opportunity to apply a new technology to study biology. We established a method to comprehensively profile arachidonic acid-derived lipids and their further metabolites, but it was also an essential tool for our discovery of novel omega-3 fatty acid-derived mediators that were later named "resolvins".  I became immersed in metabolomics, actually using the term to describe the work we were doing, when I joined a systems biology-focused start up company called Beyond Genomics (BG) in 2001. Jan van der Greef was a scientific co-founder of BG and brought with him expertise in metabolomics from both TNO and Leiden University. Working with Jan and his team from the Netherlands was a truly terrific experience.

MN: What are some of the most exciting aspects of your work in metabolomics?

CC: Scientifically, my interests have always been very broad, perhaps to a fault. In my lab on any given day, people might be studying specific substrate utilization using stable isotope tracers, characterizing metabolic phenotypes associated with disease-associated gene variants in cell models, and doing large-scale studies of human cohorts to discover metabolic derangements that occur before disease is clinically apparent. We’re fortunate to be doing many different projects and involved in so many different lines of investigation. My lab is at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and we are literally surrounded by outstanding collaborators and science in the Boston and Cambridge area.

 MN: What key metabolomics initiatives are you pursuing at your research centre or institute?

 CC: The bulk of the effort in my lab is directed toward using metabolomics to identify early metabolic changes that are associated with development of disease. We have projects on cardiometabolic diseases, cancer, renal disease, and neurological disorders that are enabled by access to precious samples from numerous longitudinal human cohort studies. In each, we’re interested to learn about the etiology of disease from a metabolic perspective. We would definitely be very pleased to discover metabolite biomarkers directly in the results from these projects, but we also hope that revealing novel mechanisms will inform development of both therapies and specific assays of disease indicators.

We are also using metabolomics to study host-microbe interactions and explore metabolic associations between the microbiome, metabolites, and disease. Most of our focus has been on the stool metabolome and inflammatory bowel disease, where we have observed many interesting correlations. It’s incredibly complex in terms of the sheer number of disease- or microbiome-associated metabolites, not to mention the fact that many of the significant signals are unknowns measured using our nontargeted methods. Structure elucidation remains a challenge that is complicated by the likelihood that many of the unknowns of interest could be generated through trans-cellular mechanisms rather than by a single a microbe. Consequently, we are making a significant commitment directed toward compound identification.


MN: What is happening in your country in terms of metabolomics?

CC: The Broad Institute is in the United States, where the application of metabolomics in the life sciences is growing.

 MN: How do you see your work in metabolomics being applied today or in the future?

 CC: Much of our current work is discovery-oriented and the timeline for translation to changing clinical practice or informing public health initiatives is difficult to predict. In collaboration with a number of labs, we continue to work on identifying metabolic dependencies in different cancers and we also have a project in progress that aims to characterize likely responders for immunotherapy. It’s early days, but I believe results from these metabolomics studies will contribute to new thinking on how to use existing drugs and target future ones. We’re also acquiring data on thousands of plasma samples from human subjects so one simple goal is to consistently generate robust and reproducible datasets that can be analyzed on their own or in combination with others. We hope these data will be a resource for future investigation.

 MN: As you see it, what are metabolomics' greatest strengths?

CC: Metabolomics enables one to study a wide swath of biochemistry and biology in a single experiment. Metabolite profiles are influenced by and are therefore representative of many factors such as genetics, disease, nutrition, and environmental exposures. I’m biased, but I think it provides the ultimate means to phenotype a biological system.

 MN: What do you see as the greatest barriers for metabolomics? 

CC: I’m not sure there are any real barriers that universally affect the field as much as there are challenges to acceptance here and there that arise from perception or incomplete knowledge about metabolomics. Some of the resistance I have heard over the years has been from investigators whose expectations were not met by prior metabolomics results, due to either information content and/or precision. There are many ways to do metabolomics, but I think it’s important to make sure that expectations are accurately matched to what can be delivered by the technology in every experiment or study. Under promising helps.
 
MN: What improvements, technological or otherwise, need to take place for metabolomics to really take off? 

CC: I think the key to helping metabolomics really take off is generating results that drive new science in the right direction and making sure we communicate successes.

MN: How does the future look in terms of funding for metabolomics?

CC: Enthusiasm for metabolomics is growing and that should help with funding opportunities. Presently, there is a decent amount of investment and we therefore have a responsibility to do great science in order to both maintain current levels of support and make a case for future increases. I’m not sure what the future holds for federal support of science research in the US, however. 


Please note: We are open to suggestions for our MetaboInterviews section. Please send suggestions for future interview candidates to Ian Forsythe at metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com.
Metabolomics Current Contents

Metabolomics Current Contents

Recently published papers in metabolomics:

Metabolomics Events

Metabolomics Events
19 Apr 2017
Lifetime Exposures and Human Health: The Exposome
Venue: Yale School of Public Health, Winslow Auditorium, LEPH, 60 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

 Drs. Caroline H. Johnson and Vasilis Vasiliou from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Yale School of Public Health will be hosting a one-day symposium on the Exposome.
 
Speakers include: Dr. Gwen W. Collman (NIEHS), Dr. Dean P. Jones (Emory University), Dr. Chirag J. Patel (Harvard Medical School), Dr. Toby J. Athersuch (Imperial College London) and Dr. David F. Grant (University of Connecticut).
 
Sponsorship from Waters Corporation.
 
For more information and to reserve a seat please visit: http://publichealth.yale.edu/ehs/exposome/
24 Apr 2017
Metaboflow & Cambridge Metabolomics
Venue: King's College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Metaboflow is a Wellcome Trust funded initiative to develop new Galaxy workflow tools for metabolomics and lipidomics. As part of the kick-off activities for this grant we have organised an afternoon of metabolomics to showcase research in the Cambridge area and also to discuss the tools and resources we plan to bring to the community through metaboflow. In addition we will discuss standardisation of workflows for metabolomics and how labs can share data to increase the adoption of metabolomics in systems biology, functional genomics and medicine.

For more information, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/metaboflow-cambridge-metabolomics-tickets-33183928022?aff=es2

Contact: Jules Griffin, Jlg40@cam.ac.uk
8-11 May 2017
Metabolomics Workshop
Venue: Michigan Regional Comprehensive Metabolomics Resource Core, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

The Michigan Regional Comprehensive Metabolomics Resource Core (MRC2) is presenting a four-day Metabolomics Workshop, May 8-11, 2017. This workshop is intended for investigators seeking a solid foundation to expand their research using metabolomics. The 2017 program agenda will be available in February.

Sessions include:
  • Study design
  • Sample collection
  • Analytical methods
  • Data processing, statistical analysis, and metabolite identification
  • Exploratory analysis with bioinformatics tools
  • Case study applications
  • Hands-on data analysis training, including statistical analysis and data visualization

For more information, visit http://mrc2.umich.edu/workshop

11-13 May 2017
Metabolism in Time and Space: Emerging Links to Cellular and Developmental Programs
Venue: EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

T. Alexandrov, A. Aulehla, P. Dorrestein, O. Leyser, S. McKnight, N. Perrimon

Deadlines
  • Registration - 30 Mar 2017
  • Abstract - 16 Feb 2017

Download Poster

Topics

  • Metabolism in time and space
  • Mechanistic insights - crosstalk metabolism/cellular functions
  • Metabolic control of development
  • Metabolism in growth control
  • Beyond the canonical roles of metabolism

Latest News

  • Registration is now open. Please visit the registration page for more information.
  • Got something to tweet? Say it #EESMetabolism

Stay up to date! Add this event easily to your calendar by downloading the iCal>>     Add to calendar

Why attend?
This symposium focuses on the role of metabolism in controlling cellular and developmental programs in its spatial and temporal complexity. There is a fundamental interest in deciphering the intricate link between metabolism and regulatory cellular programs during cell differentiation and the development of multicellular organisms. Recent technological progress has enabled us to analyse metabolism and metabolic activities with spatio-temporal resolution. This creates unprecedented potential to address how metabolic state impacts on cellular and developmental programs.

Aims
It is the overarching goal of this meeting to enable interdisciplinary discussion on the role of metabolism in controlling cellular and developmental programs in its spatial and temporal complexity. Special focus will be given to discuss emerging imaging or biosensor technologies and bioinformatics and how they can enable addressing fundamental biological questions.

For more information, visit http://www.embo-embl-symposia.org/symposia/2017/EES17-01/index.html

17-18 May 2017
Conference on Food and Nutritional Metabolomics for Health
Venue: The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

The purpose of this two-day event is to disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge in the field of food and nutritional metabolomics and foster networking and collaboration among colleagues and industry partners.

For more information please visit: https://discovery.osu.edu/focus-areas/foods-for-health/events/conference-2017.html.
29 May to
2 June 2017
W4E2017 Course: Analyze your LCMS, GCMS and NMR data with Galaxy and the Workflow4Metabolomics e-infrastructure
Venue: Paris, France

W4E2017 Course
The next Workflow4Experimenters international course (W4E2017) will take place in Paris (May 29 to June 2, 2017). During this one-week course (entirely in English), you will learn how to use Galaxy and the W4M infrastructure to analyze your own LC-MS, GC-MS, or NMR data set. Morning sessions will be dedicated to methodology and tools. Afternoon sessions will be devoted to tutoring.

Invited speakers: Tim Ebbels (Imperial College), Steffen Neumann (IPB Halle), and Ralf Weber (Birmingham University).

Registrations: http://workflow4metabolomics.org
Contact: contact@workflow4metabolomics.org
6-7 June 2017
Informatics and Statistics for Metabolomics (2017)
Venue: Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Course Objectives
A poster announcing this workshop can be found here

Using high-throughput technologies, life science researchers can identify and characterize all the small molecules or metabolites in a given cell, tissue, or organism. The CBW course covers many topics ranging from understanding metabolomics technologies, data collection and analysis, using pathway databases, performing pathway analysis, conducting univariate and multivariate statistics, working with metabolomic databases, and exploring chemical databases. Hands-on practical tutorials using various data sets and tools will assist participants in learning metabolomics analysis techniques.

Participants will gain practical experience and skills to be able to:
  • Design appropriate metabolome-focused experiments
  • Understand the advantages and limitations of metabolomic data analysis
  • Devise an appropriate bioinformatics workflow for processing and analyzing metabolomic data
  • Apply appropriate statistics to undertake rigorous data analysis
  • Visualize datasets to gain intuitive insights into the composition and/or activity of their metabolome
For more information, visit https://bioinformatics.ca/workshops/2017/informatics-and-statistics-metabolomics-2017
20-23 June 2017
Hands-on Data Analysis for Metabolic Profiling
Venue: Imperial International Phenome Training Centre, Imperial College London, London, UK
This 4 day course provides a comprehensive overview of data analysis for metabolic profiling studies with data acquired from NMR spectroscopy and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. It combines lectures and tutorial sessions to ensure a thorough understanding of the theory and practical applications.
  • Day 1: Introductory lectures and tutorials regarding the pre-processing of data acquired via NMR and LC-MS.
  • Day 2: Lectures and tutorials introducing exploratory chemometrics approaches, including PCA.
  • Day 3: Lectures and tutorials covering advanced chemometrics techniques including PLS and Orthogonal PLS.
  • Day 4: The next step - computational tools to aid metabolite identification and pathway analysis.
This course has been approved by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This event has been awarded 20 CPD credits by the Royal Society of Medicine in accordance with its current guidelines.

For more information, visit http://www.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-international-phenome-training-centre/courses/hands-on-data-analysis-for-metabolic-profiling/
26-29 June 2017
Metabolomics 2017
Venue: Brisbane, Australia
It is our pleasure to invite you to the 13th International Conference of the Metabolomics Society from 25-29th June, 2017 at the Brisbane Conference and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) in Brisbane, Australia.

Brisbane is a vibrant, friendly, lifestyle city—home to leading medical research and a thriving industry hub, located in the heart of Australia’s premier tourist region. The BCEC is rated among the top three convention centres in the world, and was the venue of the 2014 G20 Leaders Summit. It is ideally located in the unique riverside cultural and lifestyle precinct at South Bank, which is an inner city oasis with riverfront parkland, rainforest pockets and Australia’s only city-based sand and swimming beach as well as Australia’s newest and largest Gallery of Modern Art, cafes, restaurants and stylish shops.

The conference has the theme of Building Bridges and under this banner extends its reach to the systems biology / genome-scale modelling community, as well as to the analytical chemistry / natural products chemistry community. In addition, the program features thematic streams for advancing the field, for food and environmental metabolomics, and for health and wellness. In addition, a deeper engagement between researchers within the Asia Pacific region is a natural focus for a conference held in Brisbane to promote metabolomics research, build and strengthen networks in the region.

We invite you to attend an exciting scientific program comprising 27 oral sessions, 5 plenaries, 4 poster sessions, sponsored luncheons, as well as several keynote lectures and workshops. We will continue the successful tradition of satellite workshops to the conference in the afternoon of Sunday 25th June and the morning of Monday 26th June. Additionally, we have planned a range of social activities, including a welcome reception, an early-career researcher mixer and a conference dinner in the iconic BCEC Plaza Ballroom to give you a true Aussie-style experience.

Brisbane is the ideal opportunity for delegates to enjoy a microcosm of Australia’s iconic experiences. World heritage listed rainforests, amazing beaches, islands, wineries and the internationally famous Australia Zoo—home of the crocodile hunter—are all easily accessible within an hour of the city. You can even do day trips to the Barrier Reef from Brisbane.

On behalf of the Local Organising Committee and the Metabolomics Society Board we are excited to once again invite you to Metabolomics 2017—we are looking forward to welcoming you down under!

Prof. Melissa Fitzgerald, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences & Dr. Horst Joachim Schirra, Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

For more information, visit http://metabolomics2017.org/.
2-5 Jul 2017
28th Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis Conference (PBA 2017)
Venue: San Pablo CEU University, Madrid, Spain
It is our great pleasure to invite you to the 28th Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis Conference (PBA 2017) that will take place in MADRID at San Pablo CEU University on 2-5 July 2017.

The conference will cover all aspects of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis, with particular emphasis on bringing Pharma industry to meet Academia.
Key representatives in all areas of PHARMA INDUSTRY: R&D and quality control, both for small molecules and biopharmaceuticals will be invited to present their developments and pending challenges. In addition, as would be expected, “omics” methodologies, especially METABOLOMICS, will occupy a special place.

The purpose of PBA 2017 is to bring together people from Industry, Universities, Control Laboratories and Hospitals to discuss the current status of analytical techniques including instrumental applications and theoretical developments. Plenary and Keynote Lectures will be given by internationally recognized invited speakers. An attractive program of social events will also be arranged during the symposium.

For further information, visit https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1890431.
16-21 Jul 2017
2017 UAB Metabolomics Workshop
Venue: Birmingham, Alabama, USA
The 2017 UAB Metabolomics Workshop will be held July 16-21 in Birmingham, Alabama. There will be slots for 40 attendees. We particularly encourage graduate students and postdoctoral and clinical fellows. Those at US universities and institutes may qualify for support from NIH funding. We also encourage applications from all levels of faculty and other research personnel as well as all genders and ethnicities.

The themes in this 5th year of the workshop are:
  1. Design of a metabolomics experiment
  2. Sample stability and extraction methods
  3. Analytical systems (nuclear magnetic resonance and gas- and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry)
    • Targeted metabolomics
    • Untargeted metabolomics
    • Quantitative metabolomics
  4. Pre-processing of analytical data (Mzmine 2 and XCMSonline, and Chenomx)
  5. Statistical analysis of the data (MetaboAnalyst, Simca, SAS)
  6. Metabolite databases (METLIN, HMDB, LIPIDMAPS, PubChem, ChemSpider)
  7. Identification of metabolites (MetaboSearch, MSMS analysis)
  8. Metabolite pathway analysis (Mummichog, KEGG, GeneGo, Ingenuity)
  9. Integrated –omics (MetabNet, 3Omics)
  10. Advanced elective sessions (Imaging mass spectrometry, isotope ratio outlier analysis, Ion mobility, Command line and R programs)
  11. Electives will allow attendees to fine tune their training experience
Those interested in applying should go to http://www.uab.edu/proteomics/metabolomics/workshop/workshop_july_2017.php. Any questions about the workshop should be directed to sbarnes@uab.edu.
25-27 Sep 2017
MOVISS: Bio and Data
Venue: Vorau, Austria
A problem driven meeting aimed at bioinformaticians, biochemists, statisticians and those who handle and interpret metabolomics data
When: Sept 25-27 2017
Where: Vorau, Austria
To register and for more information, go to www.MOVISS.eu, and follow us on Twitter @MOVISSmeet
 
Not just an ordinary conference, where people present work they have already done, MOVISS is centered on identifying and problem solving current challenges relating to metabolomics data handling by getting everyone in the room discussing it. Want to be at the forefront of solving some of the major bottlenecks in the Metabolomics Revolution – see you at MOVISS!
11-13 Dec 2017
MetaboMeeting 2017
Venue: University of Birmingham, UK
Make plans to attend the 10th successful MetaboMeeting conference. The meeting will bring together research scientists and practitioners from all areas of application and development of metabolic profiling, covering a wide range of experience from early career scientists to experts from throughout the international metabolomics field. MetaboMeeting 2017 continues to highlight the work of its attendees through both oral platform presentation and poster sessions.
The deadline for oral presentation abstracts is 15th July 2017.
The deadline for poster abstracts is 1st October 2017.

For further information, visit http://metabomeeting2017.thempf.org/.

Please note: If you know of any metabolomics lectures, meetings, workshops, or training sessions that we should feature in future issues of this newsletter, please email Ian Forsythe (metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com).
Metabolomics Jobs

Metabolomics Jobs

This is a resource for advertising positions in metabolomics. If you have a job you would like posted in this newsletter, please email Ian Forsythe (metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com). Job postings will be carried for a maximum of four issues (eight weeks) unless the position is filled prior to that date.

Jobs Offered

Job Title Employer Location Posted Closes Source
One year postdoctoral position biomarker structural elucidation
 Laberca Nantes, France 5-Apr-2017 10-Apr-2017
 Laberca
Experimental Officer in Biostatistics and Metabolomics - 51678
University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK
 4-Apr-2017 4-May-2017
 University of Birmingham
Research Associate (Structure Elucidation)
Imperial College London London, UK
 30-Mar-2017 19-Apr-2017
 Imperial College London
Experimental Officer in Bioinformatics and Metabolomics - 55192
University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK 27-Mar-2017 26-Apr-2017
 University of Birmingham
PhD open position: Development of non targeted profiling approaches for the detection of emerging chemical hazards: application to the identification of new internal exposure markers in humans to support biomonitoring and environmental health studies
Laberca Nantes, France 27-Mar-2017
Laberca
Scientist (Bioinformatics) - (1700487)
International Agency for Research on Cancer Lyons, France
 23-Mar-2017 16-Apr-2017
 International Agency for Research on Cancer
Tenure-track position in Metabolomics
University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
 4-Apr-2017 31-May-2017
 University of Alberta
Associate professors in bioinformatics – up to five positions
University of Bergen Bergen, Norway 14-Mar-2017 15-Apr-2017
 University of Bergen
One year postdoctoral position in HR-MAS NMR-based metabolomics
CEA-Saclay Gif-sur-Yvette, France 24-Feb-2017
CEA-Saclay
Postdoctoral Position in Metabolomics
 Georgetown University Medical Center Washington, DC, USA
 8-Feb-2017
Georgetown University Medical Center
Bioinformatician
 University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 8-Feb-2017
University of Alberta
Biostatistician University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 8-Feb-2017
University of Alberta
Senior Researcher Position in NMR-Based Metabolomics
Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio, USA
 8-Feb-2017
Ohio State University


Jobs Wanted

This section is intended for very highly qualified individuals (e.g., lab managers, professors, directors, executives with extensive experience) who are seeking employment in metabolomics. We encourage these individuals to submit their position requests to Ian Forsythe (metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com). Upon review, a limited number of job submissions will be selected for publication in the Jobs Wanted section.
  • There are currently no positions being advertised.

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