Metabolomics and Systems Biology

From Q-bio

Institute for Advanced Biosciences of Keio University has recently developed a novel technology for high-throughput metabolome analysis.　The technology is based on capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE/TOFMS) and it can simultaneously quantify a large amount of cellular metabolites ranged from 70 to 1,000 molecular weights [1].　Metabolome analysis is applicable to various fields of biotechnology in the post-genomic era, such as medical diagnosis (blood, urine, tissue), food production (farm products, fermentation), and systems biology of model organisms (E.coli and other bacteria).

The metabolome technology has made “multi-omics” analysis possible. We systematically obtained multi-omics data sets for Escherichia coli BW25113 and its single gene deletion mutants. Our data covers the metabolome (CE-TOFMS), proteome (western blot, shotgun proteomics, and 2D-DIGE), fluxome (GC-MS and NMR) and transcriptome (real time RT-PCR and DNA microarray) [4]. In the area of medical diagnosis, we recently discovered a biomarker of acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity, ophthalmate being a sensitive biomarker of glutathione depletion [2]. In addition, Metabolome data have been used to confirm simulation results of red blood cell metabolism [3].

[1] J. Proteome Res. 2: 488-494 (2003) [2] J. Biol. Chem. 281: 16768-16776 (2006) [3] J. Biol. Chem. 282; 10731-107341(2007) [4] Science 316, 593-597 (2007)