MetaboNews Masthead
Published in partnership between
TMIC and the Metabolomics Society
Issue 50 - October 2015

CONTENTS:


Online version of this newsletter:
 http://www.metabonews.ca/Oct2015/MetaboNews_Oct2015.htm
TMIC Services
TMIC Services

Welcome to the fiftieth 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 on the thermal degradation of metabolites and a metabolomics interview with Tanvir Sajed of The Metabolomics Innovation Centre.
This issue of MetaboNews is supported by:

Metanomics Health
    
Chenomx -- Metabolite Discovery & Measurement    
mzCloud
Metanomics Health GmbH
Chenomx Inc.
mzCloud

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Metabolomics Society Logo

Metabolomics Society News

CONFERENCE CORNER

12th Annual International Conference of the Metabolomics Society
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Date: June 27-30, 2016
Website: http://metabolomics2016.org/
The program will showcase state-of-the-art metabolomics approaches in a range of application areas, with plenary speakers including Tsutomu Masujima, Japan, Luke O’Neill, Ireland, and Ines Thiele, Luxembourg.

URGENT: Open Call to Metabolomics Society Members for Scientific Sessions and Workshops


We are in the process of planning workshops and scientific sessions and we welcome you to submit proposals for these important meetings. 



Additional details can be found by clicking on the links below.
Do not delay – the proposals are due by October 30, 2015. 

MEMBERS CORNER

 Early-career Members Network (EMN)
The EMN is dedicated to and run by early-career scientists who are members of the Metabolomics Society and are from academia, government, or industry. The network aims to provide a forum for metabolomics researchers at the start of their professional career.

EMN webinar series
The Early Career Members’ Network Committee recently hosted its fifth webinar on September 15th, 2015, with a presentation entitled ‘Metabolomics and Beyond: Challenges and Strategies for Next-gen Omic Analyses ‘ by Dr. Dmitry Grapov, Data Scientist, CDS- Creative Data Solutions and Genome Data Analytics, Monsanto, USA. The webinar discussed key challenges faced by metabolomics researchers in the areas large-scale studies data normalization, multivariate analysis, visualization and omics data integration. Moreover, our speaker highlighted the application of DeviumWeb and MetaMapR for statistical data analysis / visualization and network-scale mapping/ analyses, respectively, for metabolomics data sets.

Our fifth webinar was free for all to attend, and we would like to thank all attendees who tuned in to our session and engaged in what was a dynamic questions segment afterwards. If you were unable to join in and are interested in the content of our fifth webinar, a recording has been made freely available on the Metabolomics Society website.

Stay tuned for our sixth webinar of the series which is round the corner in October!

Please feel free to contact us via info.emn@metabolomicssociety.org if you have any suggestions or comments regarding our planned activities this year (i.e., online webinars and workshops). If you think you have a great idea for a new activity we should organize then please do share with us; the EMN can only be a success with your support and ideas!

Membership News for 2015
With the end of 2015 in sight, a reminder to all our members that your membership will require renewing by Jan 1st 2016 to stay in good standing. Early bird renewals will start from November 1st 2015.
TASK GROUPS CORNER

 Industry Engagement Task Group
The IETG is looking for corporate and institutional partners to expand the interactions between the Metabolomics Society and instrument vendors, service providers, suppliers, publishers and other institutions. If your business would like to learn more about this exciting opportunity, especially for Metabolomics2016 in Dublin, Ireland, please visit our information portal.

Data Quality Task Group
FINAL DAYS! In case you have been meaning to participate in the Data Quality Task Group (DQTG) survey, please be advised that the survey will close at 5pm EST on October 5th.

Please complete the questionnaire NOW to enhance our knowledge on current analytical QA and QC within the metabolomics community. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DQTG001

The questionnaire will require approximately 20 minutes to complete.

All who respond and complete the questionnaire will be entered into a random prize draw for three $100 Amazon gift vouchers.


OTHER RELATED NEWS

Intercomparison Info
Sign up for information concerning an upcoming multiplatform, urine intercomparison exercise. Please complete the form at http://www.metabolomicsmedia.org/intercomp/

Copenhagen School of Chemometrics
The free Copenhagen School of Chemometrics is being planned for 2016 (www.models.life.ku.dk). For more information, please contact: José Manuel Amigo (jmar@food.ku.dk)


INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES CORNER

Australian & New Zealand Metabolomics Network (ANZMN)
Visit www.anzmn.com.au
The ANZMN is pleased to support the Australian & New Zealand Metabolomics Conference (ANZMET) 2016 to be held from 30th March-1st April 2016 (please save the date) at the La Trobe Institute for molecular Science in Melbourne, Victoria. ANZMET is a peer-driven event aimed at fostering an all-inclusive, engaging and rich interpersonal process. The program features a blend of traditional presentations, ‘Rapid Fire’ sessions for the promotion of postgraduate research, roundtable discussions and peer sessions. The Keynote speaker is Metabolomics powerhouse Professor David Wishart and the conference is being run with the aim of stimulating collaboration and innovation in metabolomics across private and government sectors by open engagement of all metabolomics researchers and institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand. Early-bird registration is open at http://www.anzmet.org and the ANZMET organising committee looks forward to welcoming you to ANZMET 2016.

Réseau Français de Métabolomique et Fluxomique (RFMF)
Visit www.rfmf.fr/
In June 2015 the members of the RFMF voted to change the “Réseau Français de Métabolomique et Fluxomique” name to “Réseau Francophone de Métabolomique et Fluxomique” in order to take into account the non-French but French speaking members of the network. The board of officers was also renewed and two people from Belgium and Switzerland were elected. In September, the new website of the RFMF was launched. 

Swiss Metabolomics Society (SMS)
Visit http://www.swiss-metabolomics.ch/
The Swiss Metabolomics Society (SMS) would like to announce the launch of our new and improved website www.swiss-metabolomics.ch. The new site contains information on the society statutes, membership guidelines, and contact information. The new site also has a “useful tools” page, which contains tools and links relevant to all aspects of metabolomics science. The SMS would also like to announce our first full assembly meeting which will be held during the first week in December 2015. The first session of this meeting will provide all individual members of the SMS a chance to vote in the elections of our organizing committee in addition to other organizational procedures. The second session of the meeting will comprise several short presentations from organizing members’ labs highlighting their main metabolomics research projects and workflows. We are looking forward to an exciting and valuable exchange of ideas and experience within the society.
Swiss Metabolomics Society Logo
PUBLICATIONS CORNER

 Metabolomics journal, Vol. 11, Issue 5, October 2015
See the latest issue of our journal at: http://link.springer.com/journal/11306/11/5/page/1

In addition to the many excellent research papers, this issue contains the following contributions on the Metabolomics Society pages.
Stay abreast of the latest metabolomics news via the Twitter feed on the front page of the website. Also you can follow us on Twitter: Metabolomics Society @MetabolomicsSoc and Metabolomics journal @Metabolomics. And you can visit us on Facebook.


OTHER NEWS

2015 ELECTIONS ANNOUNCEMENT
We are pleased to announce that the following have been elected to the Board of Directors of the Metabolomics Society for 2015:

Dr Darren Creek, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Australia (re-elected for 2nd term)
Dr Sastia Prama Putri, Osaka University, Japan (newly elected)
Dr Krista Zanetti, National Cancer Institute, USA (newly elected)
Dr David Broadhurst, University of Alberta, Canada (newly elected)

We congratulate all the new directors on their election and look forward to working with them over their 2-year term starting in October. The Board would particularly like to thank all those who stood for election to the Board this year, and would encourage everyone – whether on the Board or not – to engage with the Society’s mission, for example by joining a task group. (See Board & Committees page of website)

Tim Ebbels, Chair, Nominations and Elections Committee

 
 Software Spotlight

Metabolomics Spotlight

Thermal Degradation of Metabolites

Mingliang Fang1, Michael Kurczy2, Julijana Ivanisevic3, and Gary Siuzdak1

1Scripps Center for Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry, La Jolla, California
2AstraZeneca, Mölndal, Sweden
3University of Lausanne, Department of Physiology, Switzerland

One of the most significant challenges in generating accurate metabolic profiles is in maintaining the stability of metabolites. Many small molecules, metabolites, or metabolite intermediates are labile and can undergo degradation or transformation during sample handling including storage, extraction and analysis. While lower temperatures are typically used to store compounds, the use of heat during analysis can have a considerable impact on the thousands of metabolites present in a biological matrix. For example, thermal processes are widely used in metabolomic experiments for derivatization, vaporization, chromatography, and ionization, especially in gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). 


LC/MS analysis before & after heating a complex mixture of metabolites


Figure 1. LC/MS analysis before (below) and after (above) heating a complex mixture of metabolites (dried and under nitrogen) isolated from plasma. Thermal stress had a profound effect on metabolite stability generating degradation and transformation products as reflected in the dramatically altered metabolite profile.

In a recent study we applied new capabilities within XCMS (xcmsonline.scripps.edu) to examine the effect of heating (Figure 1) on individual metabolites including amino acids, nitrogen bases, energy currency metabolites, and free fatty acids, as well as isolated human plasma metabolites, and a set of 64 small molecule standards. The experiments were designed (Figure 2) to examine the global changes that occur at elevated temperatures commonly used for sample preparation and analysis. The samples, either derivatized or underivatized, were heated at three different temperatures and exposure times (seconds), analyzed by LC/MS, and the data processed by XCMS Online. The results showed that heating created substantial changes in the molecular profile. For example, over 40% of the molecular peaks were altered in the plasma metabolite analysis of both the derivatized and underivatized samples with significant formation of degradation and pseudo-biological transformation products. Derivatized samples were similarly affected by thermal stress. The analysis of the 64 standards further validated the temperature-induced changes observed on the plasma metabolites, where most of the small molecules degraded at elevated temperatures even after minimal exposure times. For example, nucleosides and nucleotides were transformed into purine derivatives (e.g., hypoxanthine) and ATP readily degraded to ADP, AMP, adenosine, and adenine. Fatty acids were found to readily degrade and newly formed transformation products, such as oleoyl ethyl amide, were also identified in the underivatized and derivatized samples of the plasma metabolites and the standard mixture.
Global molecular profiling approach used to investigate the effect of heating on metabolites

Figure 2. Global molecular profiling approach used to investigate the effect of heating on metabolites. Different temperatures and exposure times were examined on the mixtures and individual molecules. LC/MS data was acquired on a Agilent LC ESI QTOF and data analysis was performed with XCMS Online.

These results indicate that heating at elevated temperature significantly alters the metabolite profile and even moderate temperatures can induce significant degradation/transformation. These alterations are especially consequential in experiments involving exposure to elevated temperatures like those used in GC/MS systems, indicating that a significant amount of the spectral data generated in GC/MS experiments may correspond to thermal degradation or inter-reactive transformation products. These results may also provide an explanation as to why electron ionization mass spectral databases have been computationally challenging to interpret as some of the data may be coming from thermal degradation of the standards.

Michael Kurczy brought up an interesting point that we all could relate to… “Given that we have each used GC/MS for some aspect of our research, it is surprising that these LC/MS control experiments haven’t been performed earlier. Clearly degradation and apparent biotransformation processes are extensive at elevated temperatures”.


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

TMIC 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 Tanvir Sajed.
Tanvir Sajed

 Bioinformatician, The Metabolomics Innovation Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Tanvir Sajed
Biography

I have completed a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta with a specialization in bioinformatics. My computer skills include Ruby on Rails, Java, Android/Phonegap, Python, PHP, Perl with CGI, C and C++, Unity 3D, .NET, R, along with some experience in game design and software/server development. I have experience in machine learning, reinforcement learning algorithms, and probabilistic graphical models. My research interests include bioinformatics, metabolomics, machine learning, and prediction algorithms. I have published papers that include database servers and protein prediction algorithms. At present, I am working as a researcher under Dr. David Wishart of The Metabolomics Innovation Center, http://www.metabolomicscentre.ca.

Metabolomics Interview (MN, MetaboNews; TS, Tanvir Sajed)

 MN: How did you get involved in metabolomics?

TS: During my undergraduate, I took a course in Bioinformatics topics that included a metabolomics research project. I learned about metabolomics tools and resources, algorithms like BLAST and concepts in metabolomics. The course made me really interested in the research field. Later, I applied to work as a researcher in metabolomics and was hired by Dr. David Wishart at The Metabolomics Innovation Centre, University of Alberta. I am part of the research team responsible for creating servers and databases in metabolomics, notably HMDB, http://hmdb.ca, and DrugBank, http://drugbank.ca.

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

TS: It is really interesting how my work in metabolomics encompasses both the application of software engineering and machine learning skills. Our applications, for example HMDB and DrugBank, are hosted on Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services, and Google Compute Engine cloud servers. Engineering applications on these cloud servers helped me gain experience in IT and cloud computing. A solid understanding of server architecture is needed in order to keep applications running where the user base is enormous. Designing applications to be robust, sustainable, and scalable is part of my job. Furthermore, a deep knowledge of developing large-scale databases is also needed since our data is very large. By implementing the latest technology in cloud computing, we have automated a lot of server development especially with salt-stack. Our servers are built with Python on Flask/Django and Ruby on Rails. We have designed our software systems such that they allow the exchange of data between our servers through Application Programming Interfaces and Rails Engines. Apart from software engineering, I have learned state-of-the-art machine learning methods in order to create prediction servers. For example, CFM-ID, http://cfmid.wishartlab.com, and Bayesil, http://bayesil.ca, are servers that implement machine learning and probabilistic graphical models (Expectation Maximization Algorithm, Simulated Annealing Algorithm), the former of which is used to predict MS/MS spectra given a structure in the form of InChI, SMILES, or Molfile. It is exciting how much I have to learn to meet the demands of prediction servers and software systems in metabolomics.

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

 TS: Rather than storing data in various formats in multiple databases, we are trying to store all our data in a centralized server to make data accessibility easier. We are trying to implement consistent data schema so that it is easy to show and extract information from websites and between connecting servers. Our chemical ontology data, NMR, and MS data is consistent across all our application servers. We have also implemented an open source initiative to let users download our data and access our software services for free.

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

TS: There is some exciting work going on in Canada in terms of metabolomics. The Metabolomics Innovation Centre at the University of Alberta has recently received three million dollars in federal funding toward state-of-the-art metabolomics assessment equipment to facilitate discovery of metabolite biomarkers in labs. The institute is also involved in an international collaboration with renowned universities in a food biomarker alliance project, (http://foodmetabolome.org), to discover biomarkers and toxic substances in foods. In the summer, neuroscientists at the University of Alberta discovered biomarkers in saliva that may predict the development of Alzheimer's disease. There's a lot of exciting research going on in Canada involving metabolomics.

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

 TS: The data that my work provides through our application servers is applicable to a variety of research fields. For example, we recently submitted a paper on an update to the E. coli Metabolome Database, http://ecmdb.ca, which included ~1000 E. coli pathways created with PathWhiz, http://smpdb.ca/pathwhiz. We generated lipid pathways that were not available through other E. coli databases like KEGG or EcoCyc. These pathways can help biologists understand the metabolomics in E. coli through colorful diagrams, reactions, and helpful annotations. The data we provide through T3DB, http://t3db.org, the toxic exposome database, is applicable not only in research of toxic substances but also as an encyclopedia of toxins for anyone to learn more about toxicity of compounds. The data provided by DrugBank is helpful for doctors to understand the properties of drugs and their mechanism of actions in the human body. The data we provide can also help create the training sets for prediction algorithms regarding metabolite annotation like NMR spectra or MS spectra that can eventually improve accuracy of prediction in the future.
MN: As you see it, what are metabolomics' greatest strengths?

TS: Advances in NMR and MS spectroscopy has facilitated identification of metabolites through the use of the-state-of-the-art spectrometers. Databases with thousands of spectral data, ontology, pathway, and other annotations have helped characterize metabolites very easily. The capacity of metabolomics to discover biomarkers is also a big strength since that can lead to early disease identification.

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

 TS: The greatest barrier for metabolomics is the lack of funding it receives from the funding agencies relative to other fields like proteomics and genomics. There is a general consensus among scientists to depend more on genomics rather than solving a particular problem using technologies applied to metabolomics. The lack of community support for metabolomics may be hurting it a lot.
MN: What improvements, technological or otherwise, need to take place for metabolomics to really take off?

TS: The discovery of validated biomarkers for common types of cancer would show the promise of biomarker discovery and help grab the attention of funding agencies. Computational metabolomics should concentrate on the prediction of biomarkers and toxins. There needs to be increased focus on computational metabolic modelling of drugs that when created can fight different disease and improve human health. Establishing more industrial companies specializing in research and development in metabolomics will help drive innovation and funding for metabolomics.

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

TS: With the appearance of more industrial startups like OMx Personal Health Analytics, http://omx.io/, a startup created by Craig Knox and Michael Wilson who are also researchers at The Metabolomics Innovation Center, the future for metabolomics looks really promising. These startups will help generate more funding and worldwide recognition of metabolomics as a field that can drive change. Research interests in Food metabolomics and nutrition is very high and, with promising results, it will hopefully attract lots of funding.

 MN: What role can metabolomics standards play?

 TS: Consistent data exchange formats for metabolomics data is essential for the flow of data between servers and research institutes. It can help integrate databases and probably in the future help build a worldwide metabolome data bank for spectra, pathways, ontology, and other annotations that are easily accessible to anyone or any computational programs in the world. This will facilitate innovation further.

 
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
8-9 Oct 2015

4th Foodomics International Conference
Venue: Cesena, Italy

The Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences – DISTAL, the Cesena Campus of the University of Bologna & the Centre for Dissemination of the Results in Agricultural and Food Researches – Ce.D.R.A. have the pleasure to invite you at the fourth edition of the International Conference "Foodomics: food to life" that will be organized in Cesena (Italy), on October 8-9, 2015. The Conference will consist of invited lectures organized in three sections, each one focusing on specific foods: POLYPHENOL-RICH FOODS, PROTEINS-RICH FOODS, & GRAINS, covering as much as possible, in a two-days frame, the comprehensive Omic Sciences related to food and to its interactions with human health.
For further details, visit www.foodomics.eu
20-21 Oct 2015

Waters Metabolomics Meeting 2015
Venue: Waters MS HQ, Wilmslow, UK

The meeting is focused on the application of metabolomics workflows for omics research.
This meeting is relevant for scientists either already using metabolomics techniques or interested in the possibilities of metabolomics solutions for profiling and characterisation of metabolites and metabolomes in drug design and discovery, health and disease, nutrition, plant biology and multi-omics systems biology. Day two of this meeting is interactive and includes workshops and laboratory based activities designed to be informative on the latest developments in metabolomics workflows.

To register, visit the website at http://www.waters.com/metabolomics2015
25-27 Oct 2015

Mayo Clinic Metabolomics Symposium
Venue: Marriott Hotel in Rochester, MN, USA

Mayo Clinic will host a Metabolomics Symposium from October 25 to October 27, 2015, at the Marriott Hotel in Rochester, MN. The event will feature presentations on the practice and theory of metabolomics applications, latest research in metabolomics, tours and networking opportunities. The workshop is open to beginner and established researchers, students, and postdoctoral fellows.

Attendees are invited to display posters that will be shown during the entire workshop. Awards for excellence will be given to first place ($300), second place ($200) and third place ($100). Vendor opportunities are available and will be displayed during the entire workshop as well.

Program: Download PDF
For further details, visit https://matrix.secureserverdot.com/metabolomics_2015/home.htm.
27-30 Oct 2015

Metabolic Phenotyping in Disease Diagnosis & Personalised Health Care
Venue: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, UK

This 4-day metabolic phenotyping short course is designed to provide a fundamental education platform to students, junior researchers and clinicians in the field of metabolic profiling. The course includes an introduction to metabolic phenotyping by leading experts in the field, and explains the basic analytical techniques commonly used in this area including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Key steps involved in metabolic profiling will be discussed in the following sessions including study design, quality control strategies, data analysis and interpretation, and metabolite identification. Laboratory tour and hands-on data analysis will be included to promote the learning effectiveness and experience. The course will be finished with tips, tricks and traps in metabolic profiling and up-to-date applications of metabolic phenotyping in various research areas, for example, clinical application, cancer, metabolic diseases and infectious diseases. For more course info, please visit our website http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/iiptc/

For course booking, please visit http://fomcoursebookings.ic.ac.uk/metabolic-phenotyping-10-2015.html

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Jia Li on +44 (0)20 75943230 email: jia.li105@imperial.ac.uk
3-6 Nov 2015

Data Analysis for Metabolic Phenotyping
Venue: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, UK

This 3.5-day course aims to provide a comprehensive overview of data analysis for metabolic phenotyping studies, using data acquired from both mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy.

It combines lectures and tutorial sessions to ensure a thorough understanding of the theory and practical applications.
  • Pre-processing of data acquired via LC-MS and NMR.
  • Basic chemometrics and unsupervised analysis including PCA.
  • Supervised analysis and advanced chemometrics - OPLS and O2PLS
  • Pathway analysis and statistical spectroscopy.
Online booking: https://fomcoursebookings.ic.ac.uk/data_metabolic_profiling_11_2015.html

Please visit our website at http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/iiptc/ or contact Dr Tim Ebbels (iptc@imperial.ac.uk) for further information.
7-9 Dec 2015

MetaboMeeting 2015
Venue: Robinson College, Cambridge, UK

SELECTBIO are delighted to announce that we are once again partnering with the Metabolic Profiling Forum (MPF) to host the Metabomeeting 2015. The MPF will focus on the conference program while SELECTBIO will take care of logistics, promotion and exhibition/sponsorship activities. We are expecting up to 270 attendees offering a unique opportunity to network with key researchers who are making innovative discoveries within this field.   We are also delighted to announce that this year the registration price includes a wonderful dinner reception which will be held on Tuesday 8th December in the Magnificent Kings College Dining Hall.

Agenda Topics
  • Advancing Biological Knowledge from Single Cells to Whole Organisms
  • Applying Metabolomics to Nutritional Support and Food Analysis
  • Clinical Development in Metabolomics
  • Enhancing Analytical Approaches in Metabolomics
  • Modelling and Data Analysis
  • New Developments in Plant Metabolomics
  • Next Generation Metabolomics - Where will the Revolution will Happen Next
  • Structure and Reporting of Metabolomics: Data to Knowledge
For further details, visit http://selectbiosciences.com/conferences/index.aspx?conf=Metabo2015
10-12 Dec 2015

3rd ICAN Conference Series on Omics
Venue: Saint James Albany Hotel Spa, Paris, France

On behalf of the steering committee, the Institute of Cardiometabolism And Nutrition (ICAN) is delighted to invite you to attend the 3rd ICAN CONFERENCE SERIES on Omics which will take place in Paris, France, from December 10-12, 2015.

ICAN Conference Series is an educational organization directed and managed by ICAN and the scientific community. Since its inception in 2012, ICAN organized two ICAN conference in 2013 and 2014, and they both were a real success!

ICAN conference Series convene dynamic, open, peer-reviewed conferences on the exciting new frontiers of life science. Whether you are a geneticist, an immunologist or virtually any other type of life science investigator, and whether you are from academia, industry or the government/non-profit sector, we think you will find the experience of attending a ICAN Conference Series meeting valuable and memorable.

As in the previous editions, we aim to warrant high quality scientific programme and facilitate interactions especially between speakers and young investigators and researchers. To that aim ICAN CONFERENCE SERIES scientific board will select young researchers abstracts eligible for Junior researchers registration rate and limit the total number of participants. Moreover, this year, certain young researchers will have the opportunity to be one of the two chairs of each session.

For further details, visit http://www.ican-series.com/home.
14-19 Feb 2016

EMBO Practical Course on Metabolomics Bioinformatics for Life Scientists
Venue: European Bioinformatics Institute, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom (Google Maps)

This course will provide an overview of key issues that affect metabolomics studies, handling dataset and procedures for the analysis of metabolomics data using bioinformatics tools. It will be delivered using a mixture of lectures, computer-based practical sessions and interactive discussions. The course will provide a platform for discussion of the key questions and challenges in the field of metabolomics, from study design to metabolite identification.

We will have lively and interactive discussion throughout the course in addition to the hands-on data analysis and processing. We encourage you to bring your data, problems you might have with a particular data set or study for group discussion.  You will be asked to present your work and participate in the discussions from day one.

Who is this course aimed at: This course is aimed at PhD students, post-docs and researchers with at least two or three year’s experience in the field of metabolomics who are seeking to improve their skills in metabolomics data analysis.

Topics covered:
  • Metabolomics study design, workflows and sources of experimental error, difference between target and un-target approaches.
  • Metabolomics data processing tools: hands on open source R based programs, XCMS, MetFrag, MetFusion, rNMR, BATMAN
  • Metabolomics data analysis: Using R Bioconductor, understanding usage of univariate and multivariate data analysis, data fusion concepts and data clustering
  • Metabolomics downstream analyses: KEGG, BioCyc, MetExplore and Cytoscape for metabolic pathway and network analysis with visualisation of differential expression, understanding metabolomics flux analysis.
  • Metabolomics standards and databases: data dissemination and deposition in EMBL-EBI MetaboLights repository, collection and ever growing metabolomics online resource, COSMOS data standards, MSI
For further details, visit http://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/course/embo-practical-course-metabolomics-bioinformatics-life-scientists-0.
30 Mar to 1 Apr 2016

The Australian & New Zealand Metabolomics Conference (ANZMET 2016)
Venue: La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The inaugural ANZMET conference is an exciting, peer-driven event! It is designed to foster an all-inclusive, engaging and rich interpersonal process through a blend of traditional presentations, rapid-fire postgraduate presentations, poster sessions, a roundtable discussion, and topical peer sessions.

Its aim is to promote collaboration, innovation, and community-building in metabolomics across private and government sectors by open engagement of all researchers and institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand. The conference is actively supported by the Australia & New Zealand Metabolomics Network (ANZMN), in conjunction with the Metabolomics Society and Metabolomics Australia. Several keynote speakers will present at the conference, including Professor David Wishart amongst others.
For further details, visit http://www.anzmet.org/.
18 Apr to 26 May 2016

Copenhagen School of Chemometrics - 2016 (CSC-2016)
Venue: Copenhagen, Denmark

  • CSC-2016 is FREE of charge for students at any level.
  • PhD students can obtain a maximum of 12 ECTS.
  • We will count with highly recognized chemometricians as lecturers/teachers: Frans van den Berg, Riccardo Leardi, Thomas Skov, Tormod Næs, Rasmus Bro, Age Smilde, Åsmund Rinnan, Evrim Acar, Federico Marini and Jose M. Amigo.
  • Bonus track: There is the possibility to attend the “Introduction to Matlab for Multivariate Data Analysis” PhD course (see flyer for more information).
The maximum number of participants will be 20 participants per seminar. Therefore, it's strongly recommend to contact Jose Amigo (jmar@food.ku.dk) as soon as possible for keeping your seat!

How to enroll in the CSC-2016? Please, send an e-mail to Jose Amigo (jmar@food.ku.dk) with the information requested in this flyer.

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
Scientific Officer
 European Molecular Biology Laboratory Heidelberg, Germany 25-Sep-2015
 24-Oct-2015
 European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Research Scientist/Bioinformatician
 Discuva Ltd
 Cambridge, UK
 23-Sep-2015
 16-Oct-2015
 Discuva Ltd
R&D Flavor Technology Scientist
 Impossible Foods Redwood City, CA, USA 23-Sep-2015
 Until filled Impossible Foods
R&D Informatics Scientist
 Impossible Foods Redwood City, CA, USA 23-Sep-2015
 Until filled Impossible Foods
Four Tenure-Track Faculty Positions in the School of Integrative Plant Science
 Cornell University Ithaca, NY, USA 14-Sep-2015
 Until filled Metabolomics Society Jobs
Assistant/Associate Professor in Plant Metabolomics
 Cornell University Ithaca, NY, USA 11-Sep-2015
 Until filled Metabolomics Society Jobs
Postdoctoral Position in Metabolomics Bioinformatics
 University of North Carolina Charlotte, NC, USA 9-Sep-2015
 Until filled Metabolomics Society Jobs
Senior Laboratory Research Scientist - Metabolomics Science Technology Platforms
 The Francis Crick Institute
 Mill Hill, London, UK
 2-Sep-2015
 2-Oct-2015
 Metabolomics Society Jobs
Postdoctoral position in Bioinformatics of MS-based Metabolomics University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA
 19-Aug-2015
Metabolomics Society Jobs
Postdoctoral Fellow Analytical Chemist
 Agilent Technologies
 Santa Clara, California, USA
 18-Aug-2015
 Until filled
 Metabolomics Society Jobs
Assistant/Associate Professor in Nutritional and Exercise Metabolomics for Health, Ohio State University, Ohio. *two positions available*
 Ohio State University
 Columbus, Ohio, USA
 13-Aug-2015
 Until filled
 Metabolomics Society Jobs
Assistant/Associate Professor in Food Chemistry/Biochemistry
 Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio, USA 13-Aug-2015 Until filled Metabolomics Society Jobs
Assistant Professor in Metabolomics Gunma University
 Maebashi-shi, Gunma, Japan 10-Aug-2015
 15-Oct-2015
 Karolinska Institutet
Postdoctoral Researcher Fellowship in Metabolomics Gunma University
 Maebashi-shi, Gunma, Japan 10-Aug-2015
 15-Oct-2015 Karolinska Institutet
Scientific HPC Programmer
Work remotely anywhere in the USA 4-Aug-2015
 Until filled Metabolomics Society Jobs


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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