Quartet metabolite reference materials for inter-laboratory proficiency test and data integration of metabolomics...

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Genomics
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Laboratory-developed metabolomic methods present significant challenges in inter-laboratory comparability.
• Integrating diverse metabolomic datasets is difficult due to variations in experimental protocols and data processing.
• Lack of standardized reference materials hinders the reliability of metabolomics studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a suite of metabolite reference materials for the Quartet Project.
• To assess the reliability and comparability of metabolomics data across different laboratories.
• To develop a method for effective integration of diverse metabolomic datasets.

Main Methods:

• Establishment of four metabolite reference materials from B lymphoblastoid cell lines.
• Generation of comprehensive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomic data using targeted and untargeted strategies.
• Application of ratio-based metabolomics profiling for cross-laboratory quantitative data integration.

Main Results:

• Significant variations in metabolomics profiling reliability were identified across laboratories.
• Ratio-based metabolomics profiling enables accurate cross-laboratory quantitative data integration.
• High-confidence reference datasets were constructed for inter-laboratory accuracy assessment.

Conclusions:

• The study provides valuable resources and best practices for inter-laboratory proficiency testing.
• The developed methods ensure the reliability of large-scale and longitudinal metabolomic studies.
• Standardized reference materials and data integration strategies are crucial for advancing metabolomics research.