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Bottom-up ‘omics integration
December 2012
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
TARRAGONA, Spain—In what Agilent Technologies Inc. Biological
Systems Division Vice President/General Manager Gustavo Salem calls "a
very
strategic association between two organizations with similar goals," Agilent
and Spain's Centre for Omic Sciences (COS) are collaborating on mass
spectrometry and NMR-based metabolomics and
automation applied to research in
integrated systems biology.
Agilent is well known as a
measurement company specializing
in chemical analysis, life sciences, diagnostics, electronics and
communications.
COS, established by Spain's Rovira
i Virgili University in
collaboration with the Technological Centre
of Nutrition and Health, opened in
September. It is equipped with Agilent instrumentation, including the 6550
iFunnel Quadrupole Time-of-Flight
LC/MS, 7200 Quadrupole Time-of-Flight GC/MS, 6490
iFunnel Triple Quadrupole LC/MS, Bravo automated liquid handling systems and
the SureScan DNA
microarray scanner, software, consumables and services.
Founded in 1991, Rovira i Virgili University is a
15,000-student, publicly funded university that is attempting to become an
international benchmark in the areas of chemistry, energy, nutrition and
health, among other disciplines.
While the collaboration came about because of the purchase,
"we were not interested in just purchasing mass spectrometers, but in a
long-term relationship with a technological partner," explains Dr. Oscar Yanes,
principal investigator at COS and assistant professor at the university. "We
recognized Agilent Technologies as an excellent fit for our approach to
integrating data from different 'omics techniques."
COS will host training sessions for
Agilent's European
metabolomics customers needing formal training, and the two groups will jointly
work on developing GC/QTOF MS/MS libraries with the
company's 7200 GC/Q-TOF
instrument, according to Steve Fischer, Agilent's marketing manager for
metabolomics and proteomics. Agilent will provide
beta-test equipment and
software and demonstrate integrated biology workflows to customers in such
disciplines as genomics, proteomics,
transcriptomics, lipidomics and
metabolomics in search of biological breakthroughs. Together, the collaborators
seek to create a center of excellence,
Fischer explains.
"Both groups want to expand the use of metabolomics as a
research tool," he adds.
"If the relationship is successful, there will be more
labs using metabolomics as a tool in their research. The opportunity to offer
metabolomics
training by the Centre for Omic Sciences to Agilent's European
metabolomics customers will be a large benefit to the European metabolomics
research
community. The development of GC/QTOF MS/MS libraries should benefit
researchers worldwide."
COS's main collaborators are groups at the Spanish
Biomedical Research Centre in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders
(CIBERDEM). The organization also has established additional
collaborations
with Drs. Shabaz Mohammed and Albert Heck at Utrecht University in the
Netherlands and Dr. Rafael Simó at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute in
Barcelona.
"The integration of various 'omics
technologies will be at
the computational level," Yanes says. "This integration will be made possible
by improving experimental design that should
take into account particular
methodological issues in metabolomics, proteomics and genomics simultaneously.
We believe it is critical to create an
environment in which our technical staff
responsible for the different 'omics technologies can meet and discuss concrete
experimental designs in order
to facilitate further data integration."
Yanes believes that the ultimate goal of COS research is
to
achieve a "bottom-up 'omics integration," particularly between metabolomics and
the other 'omics.
"At the COS, we will interrogate the biochemical basis of
disease, starting with a non-hypothesis-driven approach using metabolomics
technologies," he explains. "The comprehensive characterization of the lowest
level of the cellular information flow—that is, metabolites altered by
disease—can facilitate the biochemical interpretation and therefore subsequent
generation of novel hypotheses."
Key areas of research will be diabetic retinopathy,
lipoproteins and cardiovascular risk.
COS is also very interested
in the field of microbiota and its impact on
obesity and insulin resistance, according to Yanes.
He adds, "In the near term, I anticipate new methodological
advances in the field of metabolomics. These include new software for
metabolite
identification, optimized sample preparation and new lipoprotein
measurement in serum. This will result in a more comprehensive interrogation of
biological samples that, in turn, will increase our understanding of the
mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration in diabetic retinopathy and the
cardiovascular risk in obese and diabetic people."
Agilent and Roche to
provide continued support to Roche
NimbleGen microarray customers
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—In early November,
Agilent Technologies
Inc. and Roche signed an exclusive agreement to
provide continued service to
NimbleGen microarray customers as Roche phases out its NimbleGen array
production and services.
Researchers using NimbleGen microarrays for all
applications, including comparative genomic hybridization, chromatin
immunoprecipitation-on-chip, DNA methylation and gene expression can transition
to Agilent arrays effective immediately, with minimal disruption. The
similarities of the technologies and products from both companies provide an
optimal transition path and the ability to run Agilent microarrays on the
NimbleGen MS 200 Microarray Scanner.
"This global collaboration provides our customers with a
confident and straightforward solution to move from NimbleGen to Agilent
microarrays," said Dan Zabrowski, head of Roche Applied Science, in a
statement. "With Agilent as a leading global supplier of microarray technology,
we are convinced researchers will be provided with the highest
compatibility to
NimbleGen products and services, and believe that they will continue to receive
the exceptional service and support they have come to
expect."
Code: E121212 Back |
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