Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Metabolites entitled “Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics: Challenges and Applications” encourages authors to submit new scientific applications and challenges associated with mass spectrometry-based metabolomics in the format of research and review articles.
Metabolomics combines the expertise of analytical chemists, biochemists, statisticians, biologists, computational scientists, and medical doctors, among others, in a joint effort to holistically understand biochemical processes in complex biological systems through the analysis and characterization of small molecules (MW < 1500). Mass spectrometry is one of the primary analytical platforms used to explore the metabolome, as it is highly sensitive and versatile for chemical analyses. It is typically used in combination with additional separation techniques, such as gas or liquid chromatography, and/or ion mobility for enhancing peak capacity and, thereby, improving analysis of complex samples. Moreover, advancements in new, soft ambient ion generation techniques for surface sampling, and in situ analysis in real time, with little to no sample preparation, have broadened mass spectrometry-based metabolomics applications, tackling high-throughput analytical challenges.
Multidisciplinary efforts enrich the metabolomics field by addressing metabolite-related scientific questions through hypothesis-testing (targeted) and hypothesis-generating (untargeted) studies. These are designed to interrogate complex samples, such as biological fluids and tissues from human subjects, animal models, and plants, as well as samples from microorganisms, in vitro models, food, and marine environments, based on the original scientific question.
Many challenges have been identified thus far in the field, including metabolite annotation in discovery-based studies, the validation of proposed biomarkers, the development of user-friendly visualization methods for understanding multivariate analysis outputs, the standardization of large data processing workflows, the achievement of comparable results in inter-laboratory comparisons, and the translation of findings from health-related investigations into clinical settings.
Based on this brief overview, we are pleased to receive contributions from scientific groups around the world working to move this exciting, comprehensive, and versatile field forward.
Dr. María Eugenia Monge
Dr. Christina M. Jones
Guest Editors
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