Replacing Key infrastructure for a High Throughput Fatty Acid Profiling System

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Gas chromatography coupled to flame ionization detection (GC-FID) is the main way to measure fatty acids for nutritional research and lipid biochemistry. There are several internationally standardized GC-FID methods that are used by the food industry to determine the fats in food and for measuring fatty acids in blood and tissues by basic and health research organizations including Health Canada and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. This application aims to directly replace high throughput fatty acid equipment that has malfunctioned due to aging and shutdowns/restarts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The original equipment was purchased in June 2006 through a laboratory start-up grant. It includes two GC-FIDs with software, a new air compressor and two hydrogen generators to provide the necessary gases for the GC-FIDs. The now failed equipment was used to train fatty acid and lipid biochemical analysts and establish the Laboratory of Nutritional Lipidomics at the University Waterloo as a global leader in fatty acid method development. This expertise in fatty acid measurement attracted numerous local, national and international collaborators that resulted in several high impact publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, Progress in Lipid Research, Cell, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the Journal of Lipid Research. This included projects that established the use of fast gas chromatography techniques and rapid sample preparation methods for the fatty acid profiling of human blood, and the use of these methods for large clinical trials and to help generate a map of blood levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids across the globe. The previous equipment has been used to train numerous graduate and undergraduate students that have gone on to faculty positions at other universities or positions in the food industry. The equipment was also used to support several outreach programs aimed at high school students. The failure of this equipment has delayed the progress of three current graduate students and prevented the recruitment of new students. Replacing this equipment is essential for the daily research activities of the Laboratory of Nutritional Lipidomics at the University Waterloo.