Support for increased capacity to facilitate enhanced stable isotope resolved investigations of human metabolism in the biosciences'

我们早就知道，通过改变我们体内细胞的新陈代谢，饮食可以直接影响我们所有器官的工作方式，从而影响我们的长期健康。我们也知道我们生活的环境和我们接触到的刺激会改变我们的新陈代谢。事实上，我们最近在描述我们的新陈代谢如何变化，以及测量我们血液或细胞中代谢物的水平是否能帮助临床医生对我们的健康做出决定方面取得了巨大的进步。然而，我们的新陈代谢究竟是如何变化的，以及这对我们的健康意味着什么，许多细节都是未知的。为了做到这一点，我们通过以自然产生的“重”碳或氮的形式丰富营养物质，然后跟随它们进入细胞内的不同代谢物，追踪营养物质在我们体内的使用方式。这使我们能够确定营养物质的途径，以及这些变化是否与不同的饮食、年龄甚至温度有关。我们在该提案中要求的设备使我们能够通过非常高的灵敏度识别这些重碳和氮形式结合的变化来检测特定代谢途径的变化。由于这是一种非常专业的研究方法，我们与英国各地的团体进行互动，以支持他们在生物学不同领域的代谢研究，形成一个高度协作的网络，使整个英国的研究受益。

We have known for some time that our by changing the metabolism of the cells in our bodies, diet can directly influence how all of our organs work, and in doing so, affects our long-term health. We also know that the environment that we live in and the stimuli we are exposed to alters our metabolism. Indeed, we have made huge strides recently in characterising how our metabolism can change, as well as whether measurements of the levels of metabolites in our blood or cells can help clinicians make decisions on our health. However, many of the fine details of how exactly our metabolism changes and what this means for our health are unknown. To do this, we trace how nutrients are used in our bodies by enriching them in a naturally-occurring 'heavy' form of carbon or nitrogen, and then following them into different metabolites within cells. This allows us to determine which pathways the nutrients take, and whether changes in this are associated with different diet, age, or even temperature. The equipment that we are requesting in this proposal allows us to detect changes in specific metabolic pathways through identifying alterations in the incorporation of these heavy forms of carbon and nitrogen with very high sensitivity. As it is a very specialised research method, we interact with groups around the UK to support their studies of metabolism in diverse areas of biology, forming a highly collaborative network that benefits research throughout the UK.