METABOLOMICS UNIT – CNTA
Name of the infrastructure
Metabolomics Unit – CNTA
Infrastructure description
Metabolomics is a discipline related to the study of small molecules present in organic samples and is closely related to nutritional research, it is also called metabolome analysis, metabolic profile or metabonome.
In recent decades, metabolomic analyzes have been optimized in food and nutritional research. Metabolomics has a wide range of applications in food science and nutrition. One of these areas is physiological monitoring in feeding intervention studies or dietary challenge studies in conjunction with analysis of food components, evaluation of food quality, shelf life, effects of food processing and monitoring their consumption.
The CNTA Metabolomics Unit, created in January 2020, has a high resolution UPLC-ORBITRAP Q-Exactive equipment. This kit is ideal for high-throughput screening and analysis of low-level components in complex matrix applications in biopharma for intact and native proteins; bioanalysis; forensic toxicology; clinical and translational research; environmental and food testing; metabolomics; routine proteomics and structural biology, allowing work in both targeted and non-targeted metabolomics.
In addition, the laboratory has auxiliary equipment for the treatment and extraction of samples such as Grindomix, centrifuge, thermostatic bath and solvent evaporator.
What does it offer to companies?
The Metabolomics Unit currently allows the evaluation of the metabolomic profile in different types of matrices and for different purposes:
- Metabolomic characterization of compounds in bioactive extracts and effects of industrial treatments on said profile.
- Metabolomic analysis in biological samples (plasma) to determine metabolomic profiles linked to the bioavailability of a molecule of interest or the effectiveness of a bioactive compound.
- Metabolomic analysis in zebrafish elegans/larvae for determination of compounds and metabolites related to the administration and functionality of bioactive ingredients.