MetaboNews Masthead

MetaboNews
Issue 11 - June 2012

CONTENTS:


Online version of this newsletter:
http://www.metabonews.ca/Jun2012/MetaboNews_Jun2012.htm

Welcome to the eleventh issue of MetaboNews, a monthly newsletter for the worldwide metabolomics community. In this month's issue, we feature a Software Spotlight article on METAGENassist, statistical tools for comparative metagenomics. As of the May issue, we have added a brand new section called MetaboInterviews that will feature interviews with metabolomics experts from around the world. This issue includes an interview with Dr. Augustin Scalbert of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyons, France. This newsletter is being produced by The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC, http://www.metabolomicscentre.ca/), and is intended 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. We hope to provide enough useful content to keep you interested and informed and appreciate your feedback on how we can make this newsletter better (metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com).

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

Software/Stat Spotlight

1) Software Spotlight

 METAGENassist Banner

METAGENassist: Statistical Tools for Comparative Metagenomics

Feature article contributed by Ian Forsythe, Editor, MetaboNews, Dept of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

METAGENassist (http://www.metagenassist.ca/) is a user-friendly, web-based analytical pipeline for comparative metagenomic studies (Figure 1). In particular, METAGENassist allows users to take bacterial census data from different environment sites or different biological hosts, and perform comprehensive multivariate statistical analyses on the data. Users can perform multivariate analyses using either taxonomic or automatically generated phenotypic labels and visualize the results using a variety of high quality graphical tools. The bacterial census data can be derived from 16S rRNA data, NextGen shotgun sequencing or even classical microbial culturing techniques.

METAGENassist home page

Figure 1. METAGENassist home page (http://www.metagenassist.ca/)


Data Input Formats

Users upload a taxonomic profile in one of several supported formats (see details and Figure 2). A taxonomic profile file contains the names of microbial species (or other taxonomic classes) and their relative abundance in at least 2 samples; accepted formats include CSV format, or data generated by mothur, QIIME, MG-RAST, MEGAN, and STAMP. Users will also benefit by uploading an optional file containing metadata for each sample (CSV format).

METAGENassist accepts a variety of formats

Figure 2. METAGENassist accepts a variety of formats including mothur, QIIME, MG-RAST, MEGAN, STAMP, Phoenix 2, and CSV.


Data Processing

METAGENassist performs:
  1. Taxonomic name normalization
  2. Automated taxonomic-to-phenotypic mapping using nearly 20 different phenotypic categories
  3. Data integrity/quality checks
  4. Data normalization via normalization by constant sum, normalization by a reference feature, sample specific normalization or auto/Pareto/range scaling.

Statistical Analysis

METAGENassist offers a wide array of commonly used statistical and machine learning methods including:

Data Output

Upon completion, METAGENassist generates a variety of well-annotated tables and colorful, labeled graphs in an anti-aliased PNG format (Figure 3). PDF versions for some plots are also available. The processed data and images are available for download.

“Taxa & Phenotype Pie Chart Summary” page

Figure 3. Data summary. The “Taxa & Phenotype Pie Chart Summary” page allows the user to generate pie charts of the proportions of different taxa in each sample. The user can choose to view only a specific taxonomic rank (e.g., family), which includes the counts for all sub-taxa. One can also view the breakdowns of phenotypes mapped to the taxa.


Useful Links
Reference

David Arndt, Jianguo Xia, Yifeng Liu, You Zhou, An Chi Guo, Joseph A. Cruz, Igor Sinelnikov, Karen Budwill, Camilla L. Nesbø and David S. Wishart. METAGENassist: A comprehensive web server for comparative metagenomics. Nucleic Acids Research 2012 May 29. [Epub ahead of print].
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

2) MetaboInterviews
MetaboInterviews, a new section as of May 2012, 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 Dr. Augustin Scalbert of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyons, France.


Augustin Scalbert
Head of the Biomarkers Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer (France)
Augustin Scalbert

Biography
Augustin Scalbert received his Ph.D. from the Institut National Agronomique (Paris) in 1984. He first conducted research on the chemistry of lignins and tannins in lignocellulosic materials at the National Institute of Agriculture Research (INRA, Grignon) and from 1999 on the health effects of dietary polyphenols (INRA Clermont-Ferrand). In 2010, he joined the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyons (www.iarc.fr) where he is Head of the Biomarkers Group. His current research focuses on the discovery of novel biomarkers through metabolomics approaches and their implementation in cohort studies to reveal new associations between lifestyle factors and cancer risk.


Metabolomics Interview (MN, MetaboNews; AS, Augustin Scalbert)

MN: How did you get involved in metabolomics?

AS: Working on human nutrition and more specifically on the effects on health of polyphenols, major antioxidants of the diet, I realized that traditional approaches based on testing single dietary compounds or foods, and single disease-related biomarkers, fail to establish with sufficient confidence their role in the prevention of chronic diseases. Hence my interest for innovative experimental approaches to address these questions.

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

AS: In molecular epidemiology, we develop metabolomic approaches to better understand the relationship of nutrition and other environmental and lifestyle factors with carcinogenesis. Biomarkers are commonly measured in biospecimens often collected years ago in cohorts and stored in biobanks to test various hypotheses on the effect of environmental or metabolic factors on cancer risk. Non-targeted metabolomics applied to small intervention studies or to groups of subjects in cohorts should allow researchers to identify new biomarkers for cancer risk factors. These biomarkers are then measured using targeted metabolomic approaches to identify in Metabolome-Wide Association Studies (MWAS) individuals that are more at risk for various cancers in different regions of the world and particularly in low-income countries. MWAS will allow investigators to study the association of disease outcomes with much larger sets of risk factors than previously possible using classical methods.
 
MN: What key metabolomics initiatives are you pursuing at your research centre or institute? What is happening in your country in terms of metabolomics?

AS: At the International Agency for Research on Cancer, we are addressing two major challenges. One is to identify in blood or urine novel biomarkers for cancer risk. Among hundreds or thousands of metabolites derived from the diet we want to identify biomarkers or metabolite signatures to better classify subjects according to their dietary exposure. These biomarkers should limit bias and errors commonly encountered in epidemiological studies based on self-reported assessment methods and also allow measurements of risk factors that have not been considered in questionnaires. A second challenge is to develop robust methods to quantify large sets of biomarkers (e.g., polyphenols, fatty acids, endocrine disruptors, and other food contaminants) in large series of biospecimens often available in small quantities on the order of 10 to 100 microlitres. The most sensitive analytical techniques based on mass spectrometry are implemented to measure these sets of biomarkers.

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

AS: These metabolomics approaches should allow researchers to access a considerable amount of information, still largely unexplored today, in biospecimens collected in various large-scale international epidemiological studies.

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

AS: In the discovery phase, the identification of novel unexpected biomarkers for disease risk factors and the development of new hypotheses that may explain how risk factors modulate the risk of diseases. In the implementation phase, the possibility to considerably enlarge the number of risk factors that can be measured in a single biospecimen in MWAS studies.
 
MN: What do you see as the greatest barriers for metabolomics? What improvements, technological or otherwise, need to take place for metabolomics to really take off?

AS: One of the greatest barriers is the difficulty we still face to identify markers of interest in metabolic fingerprints characteristic of a particular exposure or phenotype. More comprehensive databases on exogenous metabolites derived from foods, contaminants, or pollutants with mass spectral information would considerably help and speed up progress in molecular epidemiology.

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

AS: Today, great hope placed in metabolomics and a number of funding agencies are ready to support metabolomics research projects. However, there are still very few biomarkers discovered through metabolomics that have been properly and successfully validated. The permanence of future funding will depend on our capacity to validate the newly discovered biomarkers in clinical or population settings.

 MN: What role can metabolomics standards play?

AS: Metabolomics standards are necessary to compare metabolic profiles in large sets of individuals as found in epidemiological studies and to compare different populations. A move from semi-quantitative to truly quantitative methods is required to reach this objective, particularly when dealing with biospecimens collected in conditions that cannot be systematically controlled a fortiori in low-income countries.

Biomarker Beacon

3) Biomarker Beacon

Feature article contributed by Ian Forsythe, Editor, MetaboNews, Dept of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Metabolomics is an emerging field that is complementary to other omics sciences and that is gaining increasing interest across all disciplines. Because of metabolomics' unique advantages, it is now being applied in functional genomics, integrative and systems biology, pharmacogenomics, and biomarker discovery for drug development and therapy monitoring. More than 95% of today's biomarkers are small molecules or metabolites (MW <1500 Da), which can be used for disease testing, drug testing, toxic exposure testing, and food consumption tracking. While standard clinical assays are limited in the number and type of compounds that can be detected, metabolomics measures many more compounds. Since a single compound is not always the best biomarker (diagnostic, prognostic or predictive), healthcare practitioners can use metabolomics information about multiple compounds to make better medical decisions. Global metabolic profiling is now being used to determine clinical biomarkers in assessing the pathophysiological health status of patients.

In the following two recent studies, metabolomics approaches were used to develop biomarker tools for the identification of biomarkers associated with Fabry disease and genitourinary cancer, respectively.
  1. Auray-Blais C, Boutin M, Gagnon R, Dupont FO, Lavoie P, Clarke JT. Urinary globotriaosylsphingosine-related biomarkers for Fabry disease targeted by metabolomics. Anal Chem. 2012 Mar 20;84(6):2745-53. Epub 2012 Feb 28. [PMID: 22309310]

    Fabry disease is a lysosomal storage disorder where an alpha-galactosidase A deficiency causes glycosphingolipid to accumulate in tissues and organs. Researchers have identified and quantified two Fabry-specific biomarkers in plasma and urine: globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and globotriaosylsphingosine (lyso-Gb3). In this paper, the research team used time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify and quantify urine biomarkers that would allow them to differentiate between patients with Fabry disease and healthy control patients. This research group identified seven lyso-Gb3 analogues with modified sphingosine moieties. These novel Fabry-specific urine biomarkers were found at higher concentrations in male Fabry patients compared to female patients. These novel biomarkers could potentially be used to measure disease severity and response to treatment.


  1. Lin L, Huang Z, Gao Y, Chen Y, Hang W, Xing J, Yan X. LC-MS based serum metabolic profiling for genitourinary cancer classification and cancer type-specific biomarker discovery. Proteomics. 2012 Jun 11. doi: 10.1002/pmic.201200016. [Epub ahead of print]  [PMID: 22685041]

    The two most common genitourinary cancers in China are bladder cancer (BC) and kidney cancer (KC). In this study, the researchers     used liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods, including both hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-performance chromatography (RPLC) separations, to identify serum biomarkers from three patient groups: BC patients, KC patients, and non-cancer control patients. In BC patients, the following specific biomarkers were identified: eicosatrienol, azaprostanoic acid, docosatrienol, retinol, and 14'-apo-beta-carotenal. In KC patients, the research team identified PE(P-16:0e/0:0), glycerophosphorylcholine, ganglioside GM3(d18:1/22:1), C17 sphinganine, and SM(d18:0/16:1(9Z)). These biomarkers could potentially serve as bladder cancer and kidney cancer diagnostics.


Metabolomics Current Contents

4) Metabolomics Current Contents

Recently published papers in metabolomics:


MetaboNews

5) MetaboNews
27 June 2012
VTT and GE Healthcare developing novel biomarkers to predict Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing challenge to the health care systems and economies of developed countries with millions of patients suffering from this disease and increasing numbers of new cases diagnosed annually with the increasing aging of populations.

Early detection of prodromal AD is vital both for assessing the efficacy of potential AD therapeutic agents as well as new disease modifying therapies are most likely to be effective when initiated during the early stages of disease. The elucidation of early metabolic pathways associated with progression to Alzheimer's disease may also help in identifying new therapeutic avenues.

In 2010 GE Healthcare entered into "biosignatures initiative" alliance with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen) to develop diagnostic biosignatures for pre-symptomatic identification of AD. As part of this programme, VTT will apply serum metabolite profiling to validate their recently discovered biochemical signature, as well as to discover novel biomarker candidates predictive of progression to AD.

VTT's research professor Matej Orešič said: "We are excited about the prospect of collaborating with GE Healthcare to accelerate its research programs and to further develop our biomarker towards a clinical assay applicable in healthcare setting. VTT has over the past years built unique metabolomics and systems biology platforms and acquired vast amount of knowledge on metabolic profiles and pathways in human health and disease, which allow us to identify disease-specific biochemical signatures and pathways. We believe that integration of metabolomics into the GE's and Janssen's biosignatures initiative will lead to better tools for early detection of AD and may also lead to better therapeutic options."


Source: DOTmed.com
15 June 2012
Quantitative metabolomics analysis of amino acid metabolism in recombinant pichia pastoris under different oxygen availability conditions

Environmental and intrinsic stress factors can result in the global alteration of yeast physiology, as evidenced by several transcriptional studies. Hypoxia has been shown to have a beneficial effect on the expression recombinant proteins in Pichia pastoris growing on glucose.

Furthermore, transcriptional profiling analyses revealed that oxygen availability was strongly affecting ergosterol biosynthesis, central carbon metabolism and stress responses, in particular the unfolded protein response. To better understand the effect and interplay of oxygen availability and foreign protein secretion on central metabolism, a first quantitative metabolomic analysis of free amino acids pools in a recombinant P. pastoris strain growing under different oxygen availability conditions has been performed.

Results: The values obtained indicate significant variations in the intracellular amino acid pools due to different oxygen availability conditions, showing an overall increase of their size under oxygen limitation. Notably, even while foreign protein productivities were relatively low (about 40-80 ug Fab/gDCW * h), recombinant protein production was found to have a limited but significant impact on the intracellular amino acid pools, which were generally decreased in the producing strain compared with the reference strain.

However, observed changes in individual amino acids pools were not correlated with their corresponding relative abundance in the recombinant protein sequence, but to the overall cell protein amino acid compositional variations.

Conclusions: Overall, the results obtained, combined with previous transcriptomic and proteomic analyses provide a systematic metabolic fingerprint of the oxygen availability impact on recombinant protein production in P. pastoris.


 
4 June 2012
Metabolomics for all: A new web-based platform for analysing LC-MS data - A new easy-to-use, web-based platform for processing and analyzing liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) data will open up metabolomics to scientists with little knowledge of the intricacies of bioinformatics, say the US developers. In one simple automated process, this platform detects peaks, aligns retention times between samples, determines metabolites that are present at different concentrations in different samples, assigns possible identities to those metabolites, and performs multivariate statistical analysis.

Termed XCMS Online, this new platform is based on the earlier XCMS, which was developed by Gary Siuzdak and his colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, California, in the mid-2000s. XCMS is open-source software for processing and analyzing LC-MS data produced by metabolomic studies, and has already been used to investigate the metabolites involved in biological processes such as cancer, chronic pain, fruit development, and stem cell differentiation (see Stem cells prefer unsaturated). But like other software packages for processing LC-MS data, XCMS requires the user to have a certain amount of bioinformatics and programming expertise, hindering its adoption by many scientists.

Free access to XCMS Online: https://xcmsonline.scripps.edu/


Source: separationsNOW.com

Please note: If you know of any metabolomics news that we should feature in future issues of this newsletter, please email Ian Forsythe (metabolomics.innovation@gmail.com).


Metabolomics Events

6) Metabolomics Events
10 July 2012

Merck Deep Dive: Translational Technologies for Basic and Clinical Scientists
Venue: Ocean Place Resort and Spa, Long Branch, New Jersey, USA

Join us for another in this quarterly unique series that brings together about 150 Merck subject experts and key vendors. Sponsors and Exhibitors can display products and services to a very focused set of the Merck community leaders. Select exhibitors are given an opportunity to privately present upcoming product development and get instant feedback from Merck on where they would like to see development go to meet their upcoming needs. Topic for this event: Translational Technologies for Basic and Clinical Scientists. Molecular BioMarkers (Proteomics/Genomics/Metabolomics) is a key part of this event.
28-31 Aug 2012

NuGOweek 2012 (9th Edition): “Nutrition, lifestyle and genes in the changing environment”
Venue: Helsinki, Finland

NuGOweek 2012: “Nutrition, lifestyle and genes in the changing environment”, will be held from Tuesday afternoon 28 August till Friday 31 August in Helsinki, Finland. This will be the 9th edition of the NuGOweek.

Venue & Accommodation
The conference venue and hotel is the hotel and conference centre Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa .

Scientific & Conference Committee
The members of the Scientific Committee are:
Matti Uusitupa (chair), Jussi Pihlajamäki, Marjukka Kolehmainen, Kaisa Poutanen, Kirsti Husgafvel-Pursiainen, Jim Kaput, Martin Kussmann, Ben van Ommen, Lars Ove Dragsted, Stine Marie Ulven, Antonio Zorzano, Lorraine Brennan

The members of the Conference Organising Committee are:
Marjukka Kolehmainen, Matti Uusitupa, Kaisa Poutanen, Hannu Mykkänen, Jussi Pihlajamäki, Kati Hanhineva, Vanessa de Mello Laaksonen, Fré Pepping, Ingeborg van Leeuwen-Bol.

Further details about the programme will be made available end of February 2012.

Course on Metabolomics
Also this year we will organise a PhD course prior the NuGOweek. From 20-25 August 2012 the Course on Metabolomics 2012 will be held in Kuopio, Finland.

For further information please contact Ingeborg van Leeuwen-Bol or visit http://www.nugo.org/nugoweek/42113/5/0/30.
18-20 Sep 2012

Metabolomics in Drug Discovery & Development
Venue: Boston, USA

The world’s first and only pharmaceutical focused metabolomics meeting

The last decade of exciting academic research in metabolomics is now being applied by drug developers to determine and validate tox and safety biomarkers. Investment from drug developers is huge as the pharmaceutical industry is now using metabolomics to find novel targets, enhance experimental design, and ensure clinical success. However, statistical challenges and inherent variability in data sets must be overcome to realize the full potential of this exciting technology.

Metabolomics in Drug Discovery and Development is the only meeting where you can hear cutting edge case studies from drug developers who are already reaping the benefits of metabolomics.

The 19 expert speakers include…
  • Rick Beger, Director at the Centre of Excellence for Metabolomics, FDA
  • Bjoern Riefke, Head of Metabolic Profiling & Clinical Pathology, Bayer Healthcare
  • Thomas Ruddy, Director of Analytical Chemistry, Merck
  • David Wishart, Professor, University of Alberta
  • Jeff Trimmer, Executive Director, Pfizer
  • Reza Salek, Scientific Investigator, European Bioinformatics Institute
  • Thomas Hankemeier, Director, Netherlands Metabolomics Facility
  • Shashi Ramaiah, Drug Safety Biomarker & Precision Medicine Lead, Pfizer
Visit the event website to see the full speaker line up and exactly what will be covered.

Quote ‘METABO’ when registering for 10% off standard prices.

There is a special rate of $599 for those representing not-for-profit organizations

www.metabolomics-drugdevelopment.com

Conference brochure
25-27 Sep 2012

Metabomeeting 2012
Venue: Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester, UK

The Metabolic Profiling Forum is pleased to announce that Metabomeeting 2012 will be held at the Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester, UK from September 25-27th 2012.

The conference centre is located within the University of Manchester campus, close to major transport links and one of the most cosmopolitan centres in the UK. The meeting is the seventh of the Metabomeeting conferences and continues the series of highly successful events held across Europe since 2005. The program will focus on the increasingly diverse range of applications as well as the latest developments to enhance the practise of metabolomics.

Confirmed speakers for the meeting include:
  • Professor Robert Hall, Plant Research International, The Netherlands, who will present the plenary lecture.
  • Professor Rainer Breitling, University of Glasgow, UK.
  • Professor Hannelore Daniel, Technical University of Munich, Germany.
  • Dr Jules Griffin, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Dr George Harrigan, Monsanto, USA
  • Dr Jerome Jansen, Raboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
  • Dr Nick Lockyer, University of Manchester, UK.
  • Professor George Nychas, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece.
  • Professor Ian Wilson, AstraZeneca, UK.
  • Dr Asaph Aharoni, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Submission of abstracts for poster presentation has now opened. All abstracts for poster presentation must be submitted before August 10th 2012.

More details are available via http://thempf.org/mpf_cms/index.php/conferencesworkshops/forthcoming-mpf-events/78-metabomeeting-2012.
26 Sep 2012

Biomarkers 2012 - “Successful Strategies & Developments in Biomarkers”
Venue: London, UK

According to a new technical market research report, the value of the global market for biomarkers was nearly $13.5 billion in 2010, but is expected to increase to nearly $33.3 billion in 2015, for a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8%. The largest segment of the market, genomics, is projected to increase at a CAGR of 26.9% to nearly $17 billion in 2015, after being valued at an estimated $5.1 billion in 2010. The second-largest segment, imaging, is estimated at $4.2 billion in 2010, but is expected to increase at a CAGR of 14.8% to $8.4 billion in 2015. The proteomics segment will increase in value from $1.8 billion in 2010 to nearly $3.5 billion in 2015, for a CAGR of 13.5%. The bioinformatics segment will increase at a CAGR of 19.3%, rising from $1.1 billion in 2010 to $2.6 billion in 2015.

The biomarkers market presents the largest of all opportunities in representative disease subsegments. This study investigates one of the most important market drivers: The introduction of combination therapies, which are expected to continue to contribute substantially to market growth through the forecast period. Applications for biomarkers are wide-ranging, and will have a pivotal impact in medicine. Targeted therapies, improved patient selection for clinical trial criteria, early drug rationalization, and proactively identifying adverse events for patients are some of the leading applications for biomarkers currently and through the forecast period.

Biomarker professionals will gather together to answer the all-important question- how can we get biomarkers to add value? How do you develop new medicines, which demonstrate real value through predictable outcomes in targeted patient groups? The event is a one day strategic conference tackling these questions and providing participants with a thorough review of the use of biomarkers, their effectiveness and their potential to transform R & D.

For further information, please visit http://www.virtueinsight.com/pharma/Biomarkers-2012/
16-17 Oct 2012

Metabolic Profiling & Lipidomics
Venue: Madrid, Spain (Part of Systems Biology Europe)

Welcome to the Metabolic Profiling & Lipidomics track of the Systems Biology Europe conference and exhibition.

This conference aims to discuss the latest developments in the rapidly evolving area of metabolic profiling with particular emphasis on the break out field of Lipidomics. Recent HPLC-MS advances now allow for individual molecular species of lipids to be isolated and identified. This meeting will detail the cutting edge research taking place as a result of these developments with emphasis on understanding not only lipid metabolism but also ascertaining the role of lipids in conditions such as atherosclerosis, inflammatory disease, arthritis, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, with a view to improving treatment. As a whole focus will be drawn to the key technological developments being made in both the separation and detection analytical fields used in profiling as well as the area’s other key applications including toxicity assessment, functional genomics and nutrigenomics.

Other conference tracks at this event include Cancer Proteomics, Exosomes/Markers in Biological Fluids, and Informatics. Registered delegates will have access to all four meetings ensuring a very cost-effective trip.

In addition the event will also host two cutting edge business courses which can be viewed here.

For further information, please visit http://selectbiosciences.com/conferences/index.aspx?conf=MPL2012
7-9 Nov 2012

29th LC/MS Montreux Symposium
Venue: Montreux, Switzerland

Short Courses: November 5-6, 2012
The Montreux LC/MS 2012 conference: Special highlights on Metabolomics and Clinical Chemistry

The field of LC/MS is continuously growing as is reflected by the participation of over 30 nationalities and by scientific contributions from a variety of research and development domains such as pharmaceutical, biotechnological, food, environmental and research on novel instrumentation and new LC/MS fields such as nanotechnology and microfluidics, UPLC, low flow rate spray techniques, proteomics, and systems biology.

In collaboration with the Metabolomics Society, a special joint parallel program for this rapidly emerging field is organized addressing the technology as well as novel systems-based biology approaches in pharma, nutrition, clinical chemistry, plant sciences, and medical biology. A parallel program is organized together with various Clinical Chemistry societies focusing on current and future LC/MS options in clinical diagnosis. Accreditation by related societies for the program as well as the short course has been applied for.

For more information, visit http://www.lcms-montreux.com/.
Conference flyer (PDF): http://www.metabonews.ca/Mar2012/events/flyer_LC-MS _Montreux_conference_2012.pdf



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

7) 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 4 issues (8 weeks) unless the position is filled prior to that date.

Jobs Offered

Job Title Employer Location Date Posted Source
Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCSF - Metabolomics of Cancer Models Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, USA
 19-Jun-2012 Metabolomics Society
Senior Research Assistant (LC/MS)
 MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Hutchison/MRC Research Centre
 Cambridge, UK 07-Jun-2012 Metabolomics Society
Postdoctoral Position in Metabolomics
 Georgetown University
 Washington, DC 07-Jun-2012 Metabolomics Society
Chemogenomics Scientist
 Janssen (Johnson & Johnson Group) Toledo, Spain 31-May-2012 Naturejobs.com
PhD position in Metabolomics unit
 CIC bioGUNE Spain
 31-May-2012 Naturejobs.com
Metabolomics of fungal diseases: a systems biology approach for biomarkers discovery and therapy Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Scienze Biochimiche Italy 30-May-2012 Naturejobs.com
Scientist International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Lyon, France 25-May-2012 Naturejobs.com
Lead Laboratory Scientist - Bioanalytics Complex Matrix Characterization & Metabolomics Group, Switzerland High Res Mass Spec / Orbitrap (Paramount Recruitment) Neuchâtel, Switzerland 21-May-2012 Naturejobs.com
Lead Lab Scientist - LCMS / GCMS Complex Matrix Characterization & Metabolomics Group (Paramount Recruitment) Neuchâtel, Switzerland 13-May-2012 Naturejobs.com


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.

Note: There are no postings at this time.

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