2020/06/16
RIKEN
Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy
An international joint research group, led by Researcher Hiroshi Tsugawa of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Metabolomics Research Team (also a researcher at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Metabolome Informatics Research Team) and Team Leader Makoto Arita (Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University), has developed an innovative non-targeted lipidomics analysis technology to elucidate the structural diversity of lipids, molecules essential for life activities.
This research achievement makes it possible to accurately capture differences in the "quality" (lipoquality) of lipids that constitute living organisms and is expected to contribute to the understanding of complex life phenomena in various fields of life science research.
In recent years, research attempting to capture the diversity of lipid structures using mass spectrometry has been actively conducted. However, because mass spectrometry big data is complex and vast, and it is difficult to comprehensively elucidate lipid structures from MS/MS spectra, the full picture has remained largely unknown.
In this study, the joint research group conducted non-targeted analysis using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques to comprehensively capture lipid components from human and mouse organs, tissues, cells, and gut microbiota. As a result of developing information processing technology (mass spectrometry informatics) to analyze the resulting mass spectrometry big data, the existence of approximately 8,000 lipid molecular structures was revealed—about 10 times more than in existing research—making it possible to capture the diversity of lipid structures.
This research was published in the online edition of the scientific journal "Nature Biotechnology" on June 15 (June 16, Japan Standard Time).
Please see below for the full press release.