North Carolina Diabetes Research Center

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – METABOLOMICS CORE Comprehensive metabolic analysis, or “metabolomics”, is a technology that defines the chemical phenotype of living systems. Given that metabolic fluxes and metabolite levels are downstream of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic variability, metabolomics provides a highly integrated profile of biological status. As such, it has unique potential for discovery of biomarkers that predict disease incidence, severity, and progression, and for casting new light on underlying mechanistic abnormalities. Metabolomic analyses are challenging, however, due to the complexity inherent in measuring large numbers of intermediary metabolites with diverse chemical properties in a quantitatively rigorous and reproducible fashion. The DMPI Metabolomics Core Lab has a long history of collaborative research and has established a strong and reliable infrastructure for conducting measurements for investigators at Duke and at outside institutions. Thus, it is well poised to become the NCDRC Metabolomics Core. While Duke has world-renowned facilities for metabolomics, its use by diabetes investigators outside of Duke (such as WF and UNC researchers) has been limited by bottlenecks, particularly in the analysis and interpretation of data, which the NCDRC seeks to address by establishing the NCDRC Metabolomics Core with support from Research Navigators.