Frequently asked questions
What do I get with metabolomics?
Metabolomics is the wide-scale analysis of small biomolecules from any biological sample. The term is properly used for nontargeted metabolomics, where instead of measuring a set of known compounds, we make a more comprehensive effort to analyse every possible compound to see what’s relevant and interesting. Typically metabolomics is performed with modern analytical instruments, including mass spectrometry and NMR.
What is the difference between MS and NMR based metabolomics analysis?
The key difference is the sensitivity. mass spectrometry (MS) is several orders of magnitude more sensitive than nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). In NMR-based metabolomics analyses of, for example human plasma the measurement covers typically 200-300 predefined compounds present in the sample in high concentrations. In MS-based metabolic profiling analysis, all the chemical signals resulting from thousands of compounds present in the sample are taken into account in the analysis. With the MS approach, much wider repertoire of compounds, including also unknown compounds and compounds with low concentrations, are included in the analysis. The two approaches are mostly complementary, as there are also compounds that can be better detected with NMR.
How much does the analysis cost per sample?
The analytical cost is calculated individually for each project. The price of the analysis consists of two parts, the wet chemistry (sample preparation, liquid chromatography in reversed phase and hilic chromatographies, mass spectrometry in qTOF electrospray ionization in positive and negative mode), and the data-analytical part (data collection, data preprocessing, statistical analysis, and compound identification). The cost for the wet chemistry for a sample depends on the sample type and total number of samples, whereas the data analysis depends on the project/study design and your goals. Please contact us if you need help with planning a suitable project for your needs. Please also contact us to get estimate/quote for your project.