ScotMet Capability Expanded

The Scottish Metabolomics Facility (ScotMet), run jointly by the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde is to receive four additional mass spectrometers to advance the field of metabolomics. Funded by the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance (SULSA) the ScotMet facility, combining mass spectrometry, separations technology and bioinformatics, is run by Dr Karl Burgess at the University of Glasgow. "Metabolomics allows us to understand relationships between the small molecules that drive biological systems, giving us insights into cancer and other serious illnesses,” he commented.

Dr Dave Watson at the University of Strathclyde, added: "We’ve had excellent results over the past three years of undertaking metabolomics experiments with the Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap, and the addition of the LTQ OT Velos, Exactives and GC/MS capability will expedite existing projects and extend the range of important biological and medical problems with which we can work."

The executive director of SULSA, Dr. Jennifer Bell, explained, "Metabolomics is important to systems biology and systems medicine. ScotMet aims to provide a world-class facility staffed by experts in metabolomics who work closely with leaders in the fields of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics to offer training, sample analysis and collaboration on experimental design and data handling. This advances the growing field of metabolomics and to support systems initiatives across Scotland."