Thermo Fisher Scientific is providing the Scottish Metabolomics Facility (ScotMet) with technology to advance the field of metabolomics. ScotMet is funded by the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance (SULSA) and is a state-of-the-art facility run jointly by the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde.

The facility combines mass spectrometry, separations technology and bioinformatics. ScotMet, which already uses Thermo Fisher instruments, will now install four Thermo Scientific mass spectrometers, including an LTQ Orbitrap Velos with ETD and FAIMS source, a DSQ-II GC/MS and two Exactive LC/MS benchtop instruments.

ScotMet is run by Dr Karl Burgess at the University of Glasgow. According to Dr Burgess, “Metabolomics allows us to understand relationships between the small molecules that drive biological systems, giving us insights into cancer and other serious illnesses. ScotMet had already implemented a Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap and following the success of this instrument, we looked to Thermo Fisher Scientific to provide additional instrumentation.”

Dr. Dave Watson at the University of Strathclyde stated: “We’ve had excellent results over the past three years of undertaking metabolomics experiments with the Thermo Scientific LTQ Orbitrap, and the addition of the LTQ OT Velos, Exactives and GC/MS capability will expedite existing projects and extend the range of important biological and medical problems with which we can work.”

The executive director of SULSA, Dr Jennifer Bell, explained, “Metabolomics is important to systems biology and systems medicine. ScotMet aims to provide a world-class facility staffed by experts in metabolomics who work closely with leaders in the fields of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics to offer training, sample analysis and collaboration on experimental design and data handling. This advances the growing field of metabolomics and to support systems initiatives across Scotland.”