Mapping the human metabolome for functional metabolomics

Mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics is an emerging field focused on the profiling of small molecules, collectively known as the “metabolome”, in biological fluids and tissues. Over the past 15 years, innovative analytical and bioinformatics strategies have been developed, making it possible to identify metabolic fingerprints as biomarkers and prioritize dysregulated metabolites for activity screening and determine their biological function in specific phenotypes. Our work focuses on systematically mapping the metabolomes of a broad range of human cell types using large scale LC-MS-based metabolomics and lipidomics analyses to better understand their function and role in disease. With hundreds of mapped metabolites, these maps have yielded valuable insights into cancer-selective metabolic vulnerabilities and ‘choke-points’ for specific cancer lineages leveraging existing drugs and chemical inhibitors with wide therapeutic windows.