MetaboNews -- October 2016
MetaboNews Masthead
Published in partnership between
TMIC and the Metabolomics Society
Issue 62 - October 2016

CONTENTS:


Online version of this newsletter:
 http://www.metabonews.ca/Oct2016/MetaboNews_Oct2016.htm
TMIC Services
TMIC Services

Welcome to the sixty-second 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 by Matej Orešič and Oluf Pedersen, and a metabolomics interview with Masanori Arita of the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (Japan).
This issue of MetaboNews is supported by:

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

Advertising
 Would you like to advertise your metabolomics hardware, software, products, and services to 2,900 MetaboNews readers worldwide? We offer a variety of advertising options. Please consult the MetaboNews advertising brochure for details.


Free Subscriptions: Our subscriber list is managed using Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.mailman.srv.ualberta.ca/mailman/listinfo/metabonews.
Newsletter Archive: Current and back issues of MetaboNews can be viewed from the newsletter archive (http://www.metabonews.ca/archive.html).
 Content Suggestions/Feedback: We always appreciate your feedback on how we can make this newsletter better (metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com).
Metabolomics Society Logo

Metabolomics Society News

2016 ELECTIONS ANNOUNCEMENT

Election of Directors
We are pleased to announce that the following have been elected to the Board of Directors of the Metabolomics Society for 2016:
Dr Steffen Neumann, IPB Halle, Germany (re-elected for 2nd term)
Dr Reza Salek, European Bioinformatics Institute, UK (re-elected for 2nd term)
Dr Susan Sumner, RTI International, USA (re-elected for 2nd term)
Prof Julian Griffin, University of Cambridge, UK (newly elected)
Prof Lloyd Sumner, University of Missouri, USA (newly elected)
Dr Justin Van der Hooft, University of Glasgow, UK (newly elected)
Dr Craig Wheelock, Karolinska Institute, Sweden (newly elected)
Dr Christophe Junot, CEA, Paris, France (newly elected)
Dr Oliver Jones, RMIT University, Australia (newly elected)
Dr Nichole Reisdorph, University of Colorado, USA (newly elected)
In addition, Dr Stacey Reinke, Murdoch University, Australia, joins the Board as the newly elected chair of the Early Career Members Network.

We congratulate all the new directors on their election and look forward to working with them over their two-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 all members – whether on the Board or not – to engage with the Society’s mission, for example by joining a task group (see the Board & Committees page of the Metabolomics Society website).

Elections of Officers
Elections for the three officer positions (President, Treasurer and Secretary) for the Metabolomics Society ended on September 23rd. It is with pleasure that we announce that the candidates receiving the most votes from the membership were Prof Julian Griffin for President and Dr Krista Zanetti for Secretary. Following nominations by the Board of Directors, Dr Nichole Reisdorph was elected unopposed to the position of Treasurer. Congratulations to all three officers who will start in their terms in October 2016.

Finally, we thank all those Directors who are leaving the Board for their service and commitment to the Society over the last few years: Prof Mark Viant, Prof Masanori Arita, Prof David Broadhurst. In accordance with the bylaws, Prof Ute Roessner (outgoing president), Dr Dan Bearden (outgoing treasurer), and outgoing secretary (Dr Tim Ebbels) remain on the board in a non-voting, ‘past-officer’ capacity, to aid the transition to the new set of officers.

Thank you to all who took part in the Director and Officer elections. As always, your active participation is important for the health and future of the Society!

Ute Roessner, Tim Ebbels, and Dan Bearden (outgoing officers)


CONFERENCE CORNER

13th Annual Conference of the Metabolomics Society
26th – 29th June, 2017, Brisbane, Australia
Open Call to Society Members for Suggestions of Scientific Sessions, Symposia, Hot Topic Discussions and Workshops

Prof Melissa Fitzgerald and Dr Horst Joachim Schirra are delighted to extend this invitation to you to join us for Metabolomics 2017, the 13th Annual Conference of the Metabolomics Society, in Brisbane, Australia. The hosts are in the process of planning workshops and scientific sessions and welcome you to submit proposals for these important meetings. Please feel free to be as creative as you like with structure of sessions. Also, please advise which of the five major conference themes is best aligned with your suggestion: Metabolic Modelling, Natural Products, Edibilomics, Advancing the Field, Health and Wellness.
Do not delay – the proposals are due to info@metabolomics2017.org by October 28, 2016.

Would you like to host the 2019 Metabolomics Society Conference in Europe?
The Metabolomics Society is calling for interested members in the European region to express their interest in hosting the 2019 annual Metabolomics Society meeting (http://metabolomics2019.org/). Please send notice of your interest using this form by 10th October 2016. You should name individuals who will be key to forming a Local Organizing Committee (LOC), and outline the scientific plan for the conference. The LOC will report to the Metabolomics Society and assist A-S-K staff to select a suitable venue and organize the conference. The tasks of the LOC are to ensure national and regional support for the conference, to assist the Society in administrative planning and, most importantly, to chair and organize the scientific management of the conference, including forming an International Organizing Committee that has the responsibility for scientific aspects of the meeting. Please complete the application form outlining your ideas to maximize the scientific quality and outreach of the conference. For further enquires please contact the Society via A-S-K Associates (metabolomics@askusa.com).

Support for local and regional conferences or workshops
Metabolomics Society members are reminded that financial and promotional support is available for local conferences and workshops. Details are available at http://metabolomicssociety.org/events/event-funding.
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.

Early-career Members Network (EMN)
The 10th EMN webinar series session will be on Thursday, 6th October 2016 (12:00 – 13:00 UTC). Our expert speaker for this session is Dr. Emma Schymanski, a research scientist at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology. Her presentation titled “Mass Spectral Libraries for Small Molecules”, aims to provide listeners with a brief overview of several different mass spectral resources, discussing possible pros and cons of the different options, providing thus a basis for listeners to choose the resource(s) that may best suit their investigation and needs. Additional information about spectral matching, identification confidence and spectral exchange will also be presented. Please don’t miss out – register for this webinar at Mass Spectral Libraries for Small Molecules – Dr. Emma Schymanski.

All the videos for the EMN webinar series for 2015 and 2016 can be found on the Metabolomics Society website. The next EMN webinar series session will be in November 2016. The details, date and link for registration for this webinar session will be sent out in due course. Please stay tuned and look out for details.

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, workshops, and events). If you think you have a great idea for a new activity we should organise, then please do share with us; the EMN can only be a success with your support and ideas!!

Membership News for 2016
Please help the Society maintain our Member Contact Info: If you registered for Metabolomics2016 as a non-member, but have not confirmed your membership using the link provided, you may not be able utilize your membership to the fullest. Please make complete your membership registration process! If you need help, contact membership@metabolomicssociety.org.
TASK GROUPS CORNER

Industry Engagement Task Group
Our latest Corporate Member is Omixy, Ltd. Please visit their website and check out their offerings. Also, please consider our Corporate Sponsors who supported the 2016 Annual Meeting in Dublin; without their support, our conference would not be tenable. If your company is not currently a Corporate Member of the Metabolomics Society, please encourage the appropriate person to consider this. There are multiple benefits to our Corporate Members and the support of important companies helps the Society support the whole metabolomics community. Please consider supporting the Society through a Sponsorship for Metabolomics 2017 in Brisbane!

Data Standards Task Group
Data standards task group is planning to collaborate with ABRF-MRG2016 on data analysis reproducibility exercise. To find out more or get involved, see the announcement below: 

ABRF-MRG2016 Metabolomics Research Group Data Analysis Study
We are pleased to announce the second Metabolomics Research Group Study. One of the major bottlenecks in the field of metabolomics is the varied application of bioinformatics and statistical approaches for pre- and post-processing of global metabolomic profiling data sets collected using high resolution mass spectrometry platforms. Our study design recapitulates a typical metabolomics experiment where the goal is difference detection of features between two groups.

The primary goal of this study is to examine reproducibility and optimal data analysis strategies for metabolomics studies, by comparing a consortium of analyses using the same dataset. In addition, this study will provide participants with an opportunity to evaluate their approaches with regard to the following:
 For study details and materials please consult the attached pdf and the following Bioshare link:
http://bioshare.bioinformatics.ucdavis.edu/bioshare/view/tthvputgo2am4yo/

For more detail visit https://abrf.org/research-group/metabolomics-research-group-mrg
The ABRF Metabolomics Research Group: Chris W. Turck (Chair) – Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Tytus Mak – NIST, Maryam Goudarzi – Georgetown University, Amrita K. Cheema – Georgetown University, Andrew Patterson – Penn State University, Christopher Colangelo (EB Liaison) – Primary Ion

Precision Medicine and Pharmacometabolomics Task Group
Click here to view the white paper: Metabolomics Enables Precision Medicine – A White Paper Community Perspective


INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATES CORNER
Australian & New Zealand Metabolomics Network (ANZMN)
Visit http://www.anzmn.org
Microbial Metabolomics is a hot topic at the moment and a new book on the subject and its applications in clinical, environmental, and industrial microbiology is now available for pre-ordering. The editors are ANZMN members Dr David Beale (CSIRO Land & Water), Dr Konstantinos Kouremenos (Metabolomics Australia, Bio21 Institute The University of Melbourne), and Prof. Enzo Palombo of Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne). The main application of this field is in clinical and veterinary microbiology, but there is a great potential to apply metabolomics to help to better understand complex biological systems that are dominated by multiple-species microbial populations exposed to changing growth and nutritional conditions. In particular, environmental (e.g., water, soil), food (e.g., microbial spoilage, food pathogens), agricultural, and industrial applications are seen as developing areas for microbial metabolomics. As such, the book includes contributions with clinical, environmental, and industrial perspectives from experts in these areas. There is a flyer at https://www.dropbox.com/s/8py02xvc6uy2uev/micro-omics%20book%20flyer.pdf?dl=0 if you want more information and the book is now available for pre-ordering at http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319463247#aboutBook
 
 Software Spotlight

Metabolomics Spotlight

Human gut microbiome impacts the serum metabolome and contributes to insulin resistance

 Feature article contributed by Matej Orešič1 and Oluf Pedersen2

1Turku Centre for Biotechnology, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland; matej.oresic@utu.fi
2The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Insulin resistance (IR) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are risk factors for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and ischaemic cardiovascular diseases. Increasing evidence suggests a link between the gut microbiome and human metabolic health, which may in part be mediated through the metabolome. Earlier metabolomics studies have already identified several metabolites that are associated with IR and future risk of metabolic and cardiovascular morbidities, including serum levels of amino acids, most consistently the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), triacylglycerols with low carbon number and double bond count as well as specific membrane phospholipids. However, the origin of the abnormal IR-associated serum metabolome is poorly understood.

In order to explore the relationships between the fasting serum metabolome and the gut microbiome in the states of IR and MetS, we recently examined 277 non-diabetic Danish individuals. In agreement with previous studies, we found that the serum metabolome of insulin-resistant individuals is characterized by increased levels of BCAAs. These amino acids in turn correlate with a gut microbiome enriched in a biosynthesis potential of BCAAs and deprived of genes encoding bacterial inward transport of BCAAs. Prevotella copri and Bacteroides vulgatus were identified as the main species driving the association between biosynthesis of BCAAs and IR. In follow-up studies in mice, we found that P. copri can induce IR, aggravate glucose intolerance, and augment circulating levels of BCAAs.

Taken together, this study suggests that gut microbiome in part may contribute to IR by modulating the circulating metabolome via affecting metabolite synthesis and transport. Future integrative metabolomics and metagenomics investigations may reveal if the metabolome plays a similar role of being an intermediate phenotype also in other pre-diseases or overt disorders (Figure 1).

Metabolome as an intermediate phenotype linking gut microbiota & disease phenotypes

Figure 1. Metabolome as an intermediate phenotype linking gut microbiota and disease phenotypes. Our study shows that gut microbiota affects insulin resistance by modulating transport and synthesis of circulating branched chain amino acids.

Reference
  1. Pedersen HK, Gudmundsdottir V, Nielsen HB, Hyotylainen T, Nielsen T, Jensen BA, Forslund K, Hildebrand F, Prifti E, Falony G, Le Chatelier E, Levenez F, Doré J, Mattila I, Plichta DR, Pöhö P, Hellgren LI, Arumugam M, Sunagawa S, Vieira-Silva S, Jørgensen T, Holm JB, Trošt K; MetaHIT Consortium, Kristiansen K, Brix S, Raes J, Wang J, Hansen T, Bork P, Brunak S, Oresic M, Ehrlich SD, Pedersen O. Human gut microbes impact host serum metabolome and insulin sensitivity. Nature. 2016 Jul 21;535(7612):376-81. [PMID: 27409811]


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 Masanori Arita.
Masanori Arita

 Professor at the National Institute of Genetics and Team Leader at the Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Japan
Masanori Arita
Biography

With a Ph.D. in Information Science, Masanori started his career as a term researcher at the Electrotechnical Laboratory (Tsukuba, Japan). Soon he moved to the Computational Biology Research Center of AIST (Japan) as its starting member in 2001, and was later appointed as Associate Professor of the Computational Biology Department, University of Tokyo, in 2003. Around this time he started to work on plant metabolomics with Prof. Kazuki Saito and joined RIKEN in 2007. Currently he is Professor at the National Institute of Genetics (Mishima, Japan) and Team Leader at Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN.

Metabolomics Interview (MN, MetaboNews; MA, Masanori Arita)

 MN: How did you get involved in metabolomics?

MA: Although my educational background was in computer science, plant secondary metabolites fascinated me. Starting with flavonoids, I was interested in the biosynthesis of various secondary metabolites such as terpenoids and polyketides. This led me to the integration of genomic and metabolomic information, and then database studies.

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

MA: The design of theoretical mass spectral libraries is exciting. Historically, metabolomics researchers have been using mass spectra from authentic standards, and this scheme is still the gold standard. However, for lipid molecules such as phosphoglycerolipids, people started using theoretical, i.e., computationally-generated, spectral libraries. The use of theoretical libraries is a big leap. Theories may err, but they greatly expand the possibility of metabolite identification. The MassBank database has been around for about 10 years, but the total number of metabolites (not spectra) is still a few thousands. Theoretical libraries can quickly boost this number to hundreds of thousands.

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

 MA: Data sharing of mass spectra and retention times is the key. The MassBank consortium (mainly, MassBank of North America from Oliver Fiehn's laboratory at UC Davis, USA, Norman MassBank from Tobias Shulze and collaborators at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany, and the original MassBank from Japan) is the main advocate of this approach. Data sharing is also strongly advocated by the MetaboLights group at European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), with which we collaborate closely.

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

MA: In Japan we have our own annual gathering on metabolomics. It started in Tsuruoka (Keio University) 11 years ago, and the Tsuruoka group is still the main organizing body as the meeting host for every 2 years. For the other years, researchers all over Japan volunteer to host this meeting, although there is no formal society or group.

It is good to be able to receive research updates in our mother tongue, especially for company people and students. Of course core researchers visit the International Metabolomics Society every year.

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

 MA: I have been developing MassBank for almost 10 years, and believe that good databases are the key for data sharing. Open science is now popular, but the issue of mother tongue is not well discussed. Japan is one of few countries that can pursue all science in its native language (i.e., Japanese). All basic metabolites have Japanese names, and most English textbooks are translated into Japanese very quickly. The majority of the Japanese population, therefore, understands and enjoys science in Japanese. For this reason, we need to circulate scientific information also in Japanese. This almost doubles our effort for database construction, but it is important for education.

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

MA: While the genome is the blueprint, the metabolome consists of the actual building blocks. If we want to observe the structure of life, we need to look at the metabolome.

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

MA: Metabolite identification is still the major bottleneck. Among GC-MS or LC-MS metabolite peaks, we can annotate only 20% or less. This is why I have been focusing on public repositories and the design of theoretical libraries.
 
MN: What improvements, technological or otherwise, need to take place for metabolomics to really take off?

MA: Once we establish a reliable, comprehensive spectral library, we should be able to perform metabolomics with a low-end machine. As an informatics person, my task is to lower the research cost and make metabolomic experiments more affordable. With software technologies, we should be able to achieve this.

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

MA: In Japan, the support for basic research is declining as in other countries. However, as government becomes more interested in medical research, human-centric metabolomics will flourish. 

MN: What role can metabolomics standards play?

MA: Standards are fundamental for data sharing. It is informative to think about the early phase of gene microarrays. When each group was measuring gene expression with a custom-made spotting arrays, comparisons across laboratories were impossible. Databases such as ArrayExpress or GEO became functional only after chips were standardized. In terms of metabolomics, we are still in the phase of spotting arrays. Standards are crucial to be able to compare experimental results within or across laboratories.

MN: Do you have any other comments that you wish to share about metabolomics?

MA: The criteria of identification or ways of data integration are rather shared among members of the Metabolomics Society, i.e., readers of MetaboNews. However, once outside of this community, many people use different technologies such as infrared (IR) or ultraviolet–visible (UV) spectroscopy. It is important to reach out to other communities to explore other identification criteria and expand the horizon of metabolomics research.

 
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:

MetaboNews

MetaboNews
20 Sep 2016
Metabolomics Enables Precision Medicine – A White Paper Community Perspective

By Rima Kaddurah Daouk, Duke University Medical Center

On January 20, 2015, President Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) in his State of the Union address. The PMI brought forward bold vision that would enable a new era of medicine in which researchers, providers, and patients work together to develop individualized care to improve human health and treatment outcomes.

The National Institutes of Health and its director Francis Collins have called for communities of researchers from around the country to make the case as to what set of technologies and disciplines would afford the highest level of efficacy in the development of the PMI. Drs. Collins and Varmus (N Engl J Med 2015; 372:793-795) stated that “the concept of precision medicine—prevention and treatment strategies that take individual variability into account—is not new; blood typing, for instance, has been used to guide blood transfusions for more than a century. But the prospect of applying this concept broadly has been dramatically improved by the recent development of large-scale biologic databases (such as the human genome sequence), powerful methods for characterizing patients such as proteomics, metabolomics, genomics, diverse cellular assays, and even mobile health technology, and computational tools for analyzing large sets of data”. They added that what is needed is a broad research program to encourage creative approaches to precision medicine, test them rigorously, and ultimately use them to build the evidence base needed to guide clinical practice.

Our Metabolomics Society, through its “Pharmacometabolomics and Precision Medicine Task Group”, with input from our metabolomics community at large, has developed this white paper entitled “Metabolomics Enables Precision Medicine - “A White Paper, Community Perspective”” (Metabolomics 2016,12:149). Our metabolomics community believes that inclusion of metabolomics data in Precision Medicine Initiatives is timely and will provide an extremely valuable layer of data that compliments and informs other data obtained by these important initiatives. The leaders of this Task Group have participated in workshops organized by NIH to shape the PMI and highlighted the importance of inclusion of metabolomics data. Metabolomics data provides a readout of net influences of genome, exposome, gut microbiome, and environment on human metabolism and health. Metabolomics data was shown in over forty recent publications to provide totally new insights about differences in response to treatment among individuals with gender and ethnic differences noted.

In the white paper, we discuss the value and approaches for including metabolomics data in large precision medicine initiatives. This white paper offers recommendations for the selection of state of-the-art metabolomics platforms and approaches that offer the widest biochemical coverage, considers critical sample collection and preservation, as well as standardization of measurements, among other important topics. We anticipate that our metabolomics community will have representation in large precision medicine initiatives to provide input with regard to sample acquisition/preservation, selection of optimal omics technologies, and key issues regarding data collection, interpretation, and dissemination. We strongly recommend the collection and biobanking of samples for precision medicine initiatives that will take into consideration needs for large-scale metabolic phenotyping studies.

Metabolomics Events

Metabolomics Events
10-12 Oct 2016


Max Rubner Conference on Food Metabolomics
Venue: Karlsruhe, Germany

We are pleased to announce the second international Max Rubner Conference on Food Metabolomics to be held from October 10th -12th, 2016, at the Max Rubner-Institut, the German Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, in Karlsruhe, Germany.

For further information and registration details, please visit https://www.mri.bund.de/de/ueber-das-mri/veranstaltungen/max-rubner-conference/2016/.

12-14 Oct 2016


Multiple biofluid and tissue types, from sample preparation to analysis strategies for metabolomics
Venue: Birmingham Metabolomics Training Centre, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

This 3-day course will provide a comprehensive overview of dealing with complex biological samples for LC-MS analysis. The course is targeted towards students and researchers who are actively applying metabolomics in their research. The course will be led by experts in the field and include
  • An overview of quenching and extraction strategies for different biological samples
  • Hands-on sample preparation using different sample types
  • Hands-on HILIC and reversed phase LC-MS data acquisition
  • Solid phase extraction clean up methods
  • An overview of data analysis and metabolite identification
  • An opportunity to ask questions and seek advice to prepare samples in your own research
For further information and registration details, please visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/metabolomics-training-centre/courses/sample-analysis.aspx or contact bmtc@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
13 Oct 2016


BIH Symposium “Metabolomics in Translational Medicine”
Venue: Hannoversche Str. 5B, 10115 Berlin, Germany

Advancing medical and biological knowledge requires researchers from diverse specialities to collaborate, and to integrate findings from basic and clinical research.

The symposium will discuss how metabolomics can support biomedical research in fields such as diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on translational research approaches.

Ample time for discussions and networking will be provided.

For further information and registration details, please visit https://www.bihealth.org/de/artikel/bih-symposium-metabolomics-in-translational-medicine-577/.

15-16 Oct 2016


Mayo Clinic Metabolomics Workshop
Venue: Siebens Building, Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Mayo Clinic will host a Metabolomics Symposium from October 15 to October 16 on the Rochester, Minn., campus. The event will feature presentations on the practice and theory of metabolomics applications, the latest research in metabolomics and networking opportunities. The workshop is open to beginning and established researchers, students and postdoctoral fellows.

New this year: A focused workshop is available to a limited group of individuals based on availability.

Scholarships for scholars and junior faculty are available.

For further information and registration details, please visit https://matrix.secureserverdot.com/metabolomics_2016/home_live1.htm.

27 Oct 2016


3rd Helmholtz Metabolomics Symposium “Diabetes and Cancer”
Venue: Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

It is being widely acknowledged that metabolism is critically involved in cancer pathogenesis. It is further known from epidemiological studies that obesity and diabetes increase the risk for a large number of cancers.

This symposium will discuss the links between metabolism and cancer, with a focus on translational and clinical applications of metabolomics in oncology.

Ample time for discussions and networking will be provided. Posters are welcomed. Please register for free at diabetes-and-cancer@biocrates.com

For further information, please visit https://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/no_cache/gac/news/gac-news/article/35526/index.html.

31 Oct-4 Nov 2016


Hands-on LC-MS for Metabolic Profiling
Venue: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, UK

Earlybird: £1750
Standard: £1950

This week long course aims to cover how to perform a metabolic profiling experiment, from start to finish. It covers study design, sample preparation, the use of mass spectrometry for global profiling and targeted methodologies and data analysis.

It combines lectures and tutorial sessions to ensure a thorough understanding of the theory and practical applications. Topics covered include:
  • Targeted and untargeted sample preparation
  • Targeted and untargeted data analysis
  • Statistics and OPLS
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-international-phenome-training-centre/courses/hands-on-lc-ms-for-metabolic-profiling or contact Dr Liz Want (iptc@imperial.ac.uk) for further information.
2 Nov 2016


CRC Symposium “Targeted Metabolomics for Biomarker Discovery and Precision Medicine”
Venue: Hannover, Germany

Clinically relevant biomarkers are important for early detection of diseases and to guide treatment decisions as more options are becoming available.

This symposium will discuss biomarker projects from a variety of fields, as well as critical success factors for successful biomarker research.

Ample time for discussions and networking will be provided.
For more information, visit http://www.biocrates.com/news-room/events/crc-symposium-qtargeted-metabolomics-for-biomarker-discovery-and-presicion-medicine-1.
3-4 Nov 2016


Metabolite identification with the Q Exactive and LTQ Orbitrap
Venue: Birmingham Metabolomics Training Centre, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

This 2-day course will provide a hands-on approach to teach the latest techniques and tools available to perform metabolite identification. We will apply these tools on the Q Exactive and LTQ Orbitrap mass spectrometry family. The course is targeted towards students and researchers who are actively applying metabolomics.

The course will be led by experts in the field and include significant hands-on experience using both the Q Exactive and LTQ Orbitrap instruments to perform,
  • Data dependent acquisition
  • Data independent acquisition
  • MS/MS and MSn data acquisition
The course will finish with a session on the tips and tricks from the experts and an opportunity to ask questions.

For further information and registration details, please visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/metabolomics-training-centre/courses/metabolite-identification.aspx or contact bmtc@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
15-18 Nov 2016


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

Students: £500
Academic: £800
Industry: £1150

A lecture based course detailing an overview of metabolic phenotyping including the use of NMR spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry, with insights from the experts at Imperial College and collaborators from all over the world. Lectures will cover data acquisition and analysis with some advanced statistical workshops for more hands-on participation for attendees. There will also be examples of real life applications from the research at Imperial College and their collaborators.

Day 1: Registration followed by session 1 which will cover an analytical technology (either NMR or MS) for metabolic profiling. A laboratory tour of the facilities will follow.

Day 2: Session 2 will cover the alternative analytical technique (NMR / MS) and will be followed by session 3 which will introduce the theory to statistical analysis.

Day 3: Session 4 covers more advanced chemometrics, such as OPLS and O2PLS and includes hands-on workshops. Session 5 will introduce metabolite identification in both NMR and MS and cover some tips and tricks to avoid common pitfalls.

Day 4: The final day will cover some of the real life applications of NMR and MS for metabolic phenotyping.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-international-phenome-training-centre/courses/metabolic-phenotyping-in-disease-diagnosis-and-personalised-health-care/ or contact Dr Liz Want (iptc@imperial.ac.uk) for further information.
22-25 Nov 2016


Hands on Data Analysis for Metabolic Profiling
Venue: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, UK

Earlybird: £900
Standard: £1100

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.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-international-phenome-training-centre/courses/hands-on-data-analysis-for-metabolic-profiling/ or contact Dr Liz Want (iptc@imperial.ac.uk) for further information.
23-25 Nov 2016


Metabolomics with the Q Exactive
Venue: Birmingham Metabolomics Training Centre, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

This 3-day course will introduce you to using the Q Exactive mass spectrometer in your metabolomics investigations. The course is aimed at students and researchers with minimal previous experience of applying LC-MS in metabolomics. The course will be led by experts in the field and include lectures, laboratory sessions and computer workshops to provide
  • An introduction to metabolomics and using the Q Exactive mass spectrometer in your studies
  • Polar and non-polar sample preparation for profiling and targeted studies
  • Data acquisition for profiling and targeted studies
  • Data processing and data analysis
  • Introduction to metabolite identification
The course will finish with a question and answer session with a panel of experts.

For further information and registration details, please visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/metabolomics-training-centre/courses/q-exactive.aspx or contact bmtc@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
28 Nov to 2 Dec 2016


Workflow4Experimenters (W4E) Course 2016
Venue: ABiMS platform, Roscoff, France

Using Galaxy and the Workflow4metabolomics infrastructure to analyse metabolomics data

Overview: Pre-processing, statistical analysis, and annotation of metabolomics data is a complex task. The Workflow4metabolomics online infrastructure provides a user-friendly and high-performance environment with advanced computational modules for building, running, and sharing complete workflows for LC-MS, GC-MS, and NMR analysis (Giacomoni et al., 2015).

Goals: During this one-week course, participants will learn how to use the W4M infrastructure to analyze their own dataset.Morning sessions will be dedicated to methodology and tools. Afternoon sessions will be devoted to tutoring.

Target audience: LC-MS, GC-MS and NMR experimenters (e.g., biologists, chemists)
Registration fee: 750 € (Academia) and 1400 € (Industry); Fees include accommodations but not travel expenses
Language: English
Pre-registration: Monday 30 May 2016 to Friday 15th July 2016 at Workflow4Experimenters course 2016
Contact: contact@workflow4metabolomics.org

For further details, visit http://workflow4metabolomics.org/training/W4Mcourse2016.
8-10 Dec 2016


4th ICAN Conference Series on Precision Medicine in Cardiometabolic Diseases and Nutrition-Related Diseases
Venue: Saint James Albany Hotel, Paris France

On behalf of the steering committee, the Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition (ICAN) is delighted to invite you to the fourth ICAN Conference Series on Precision Medicine in Cardiometabolic and Nutrition-related Diseases, which will take place in Paris, France, from December 8-10, 2016.

The ICAN Conference Series is an educational instrument directed and managed by ICAN and the scientific community. Since its inception in 2012, ICAN has organized three annual ICAN conferences, both of which were a fabulous success!

The ICAN conference Series aims to convene a dynamic, open, peer-reviewed symposium dedicated to exciting new frontiers in life science. Whether you are a geneticist, an immunologist, or virtually any other type of life science investigator, from academia, industry, or the government/non-profit sector, we are sure that you will find the ICAN Conference Series to be a valuable and memorable experience.

As for previous editions, we have coordinated a high-quality scientific program, with the unique opportunity of facilitating interactions between speakers and young investigators and researchers. Therefore the ICAN Conference Series Scientific Board will preferentially select junior researcher abstracts eligible for the reduced registration rate, and limit the total number of participants. Moreover, this year, certain young researchers will have the rare opportunity to co-chair each session.

We look forward to seeing you again this year!

Prof. Karine Clément
Director of ICAN

Program: http://www.ican-series.com/program
Registration & Rates: http://www.ican-series.com/registration-rates

For further details, visit http://www.ican-series.com/.
12-13 Dec 2016
Quality Assurance and Quality Control in Metabolic Phenotyping
Venue: Birmingham Metabolomics Training Centre, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

This 2-day course will provide a comprehensive overview of the application of quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) in metabolic phenotyping. The course is aimed at students and researchers who are actively working in the field. Experts who have developed the application of QA and QC procedures within the field will lead the course. It will include both theoretical and practical components to
  • Introduce QA and QC in metabolic phenotyping
  • The application of QA and QC in untargeted and targeted studies
  • Preparation of QCs and data acquisition
  • Data processing and reporting standards
The course will finish with a question and answer session with a panel of experts.

For further information and registration details, please visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/metabolomics-training-centre/courses/quality-phenotyping.aspx or contact bmtc@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
13-17 February 2017
EMBO Practical Course on Metabolomics Bioinformatics for Life Scientists
Venue: European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) - Training Room 2 - Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge,  CB10 1SD, United Kingdom

Application opens: Monday August 08 2016
Application deadline: Friday November 11 2016
Participation: Open application with selection
Contact: Maria Bacadare Goitia
Registration fee: £350

Overview
This course will provide an overview of key issues that affect metabolomics studies, handling datasets 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.

Audience
This course is aimed at PhD students, post-docs and researchers with at least one year’s experience in the field of metabolomics who are seeking to improve their skills in metabolomics data analysis. Participants ideally must have working experience using R (including a basic understanding of the syntax and ability to manipulate objects).

For more information, please visit https://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/events/2017/embo-practical-course-metabolomics-bioinformatics-life-scientists-3.

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.
26-29 June 2017
Metabolomics 2017
Venue: Brisbane, Australia
The 13th Annual International Conference of the Metabolomics Society will be held in Brisbane from June 26-29, 2017. Check back for updates in the coming months at http://metabolomics2017.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
UCD Post Doctoral Research Fellow Level 2, UCD School of Agricultural & Food Science (Temporary)
 University College Dublin Dublin, Ireland
 23-Sep-2016 21-Oct-2016
 University College Dublin; (search Ref #008717)
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Metabolomics
 UCEIV, Toxicology team Dunkerque, France 14-Sep-2016 10-Oct-2016
 University of the Littoral Opal Coast
Postdoctoral Researcher - Metabolomics / Analytical Chemistry
 Gunma University Japan, Maebashi
 7-Sep-2016 7-Oct-2016
 ResearchGate.net
Postdoctoral Fellow
 University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa
 18-Aug-2016 Until filled
 Metabolomics Society
Director, Mass Spectrometry and Bio-Analytical Operations
 Stemina Biomarker Discovery Madison, Wisconsin, USA
 15-Aug-2016 15-Nov-2016
 Metabolomics Society
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Marine Metabolomics
 Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, Israel
 10-Aug-2016
Weizmann Institute of Science
Researcher Position
 Centro Cardiologico Monzino Milan, Italy
 8-Aug-2016
Centro Cardiologico Monzino
Postdoctoral Fellow in Metabolomics/Metabolite Identification
 University of Missouri Metabolomics Center Columbia, USA
 8-Aug-2016
University of Missouri
Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical Metabolomics
 Concordia University Montreal, Canada
 14-Jul-2016 31-Oct-2016 or until filled
 Concordia 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.

Free Subscription
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.mailman.srv.ualberta.ca/mailman/listinfo/metabonews. Please forward this newsletter to any interested colleagues or collaborators. Send your comments and feedback about this newsletter to metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com.

Back issues of this newsletter can be viewed from the newsletter archive (http://www.metabonews.ca/archive.html).