Expanding metabolomics sample preparation with new desalting protocols for enhanced molecular coverage
EMSL Project ID
60569
Abstract
Metabolomics workflows are a cornerstone of EMSL’s user program. Routinely, samples are received which are rich in inorganic components such as salts, trace metals, and minerals. These ‘salts’ impede analysis as they result in reduced signal intensity for both mass spectrometry and NMR methodologies. For the analysis of larger biomolecules such as proteins, salt can be removed without significant loss of sample. However, effective and selective removal of salts from metabolomics samples has remained elusive, and current methods lose many components of interest from the sample. Here, we will augment EMSL’s established solid phase extraction (SPE) desalting method with additional or alternative protocols which target different classes of metabolite. We will systematically evaluate and characterize potential alternative SPE protocols. This is a critical need for EMSL’s metabolomics pipelines as we are currently unable to comprehensively analyze samples from particularly salty environments including oceans and brackish inland waters, soils that contain higher levels of salt, and samples grown in salty media (i.e., hydroponics). The developed protocols will expand our ability to analyze such samples and increase the applicability of our NMR and MS metabolomics pipelines to more user projects. Furthermore, an improved understanding of biases in our methods – resulting from this work – will help to contextualize results across all projects.
Project Details
Start Date
2022-08-17
End Date
2023-07-31
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members