Mapping biology at high resolution: Molecular phenomics in systems, synthetic, and chemical biology

One of the predominant challenges in systems-wide analyses and molecular phenomics is the broad-scale characterization of the molecular inventory in cells, tissues, and biological fluids.

Advances in computational systems biology rely heavily on the experimental capacity to make omics measurements, i.e., integrated metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, glycomics, etc., accompanied by fast minimal sample preparation, high resolving power in separation dimensions, rapid measurements, high concentration dynamic range, low limits of detection, and high selectivity.

This confluence of figures-of-merit places demanding challenges on analytical platforms for such analyses. Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) provides rapid gas-phase electrophoretic separations on the basis of molecular structure and is well suited for integration with rapid mass spectrometry detection techniques. Advances in the resolving power of the ion mobility dimension, coupled with enhanced accuracy and precision, are opening new directions for integrating these data into molecular phenomic workflows, with a special emphasis on lipidomics.

In this webinar, Prof. John McLean, Vanderbilt University, discusses new advances in bioinformatics and biostatistics and how they can be used to approach biological queries from an unbiased and untargeted perspective.