Cancer Metabolomics – or CaMetab – is a developing core which operates within the Laboratory for Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry (LBMS). LBMS is a collaborative campus resource founded in 2016 with joint support from the University of Wisconsin and the Morgridge Institute for Research. Our mission is to provide the UW campus community with access to cutting-edge mass spectrometry technology for the investigation into metabolic perturbations.
LBMS thrives on collaborative science. We engage with researchers through the scientific process – from study design to data interpretation and publication. LBMS works with a large range of sample types – cultured cells, biofluids, and tissues – to study a wide range of biological systems. Our most used platforms are the discovery metabolomic, lipidomic, and proteomic analyses, but we also have developed targeted assays for specific molecules and pathways: amino acids, acyl-carnitines, short-chain fatty acids, and methionine metabolic pathway. In the last year we have added two new workflows for discovery metabolomics and have developed a more sensitive lipidomics platform that is compatible with smaller sample amounts.
A favorite tool – the web based data viewer – was highlighted in a recent publication. The data viewer was developed in the Coon Lab and has been used (and loved!) by LBMS collaborators. Collaborators can easily click through different data visualization tools like barplots, volcano plots, and correlation plots with convenient hover tools. The hover tools are especially helpful because they allow a user to see to see more information about biomolecules in the plots – for example the name, the compound class, or functional information. These data explorations tools are extremely useful and now this tool is available for the larger community for project specific websites.