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

一段时间以来，我们已经知道，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。我们还知道，我们生活的环境和我们接触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方面取得了巨大的进步，以及测量我们血液或细胞中代谢物的水平是否可以帮助临床医生对我们的健康做出决定。然而，我们的新陈代谢究竟如何变化以及这对我们的健康意味着什么的许多细节都是未知的。为了做到这一点，我们跟踪营养物质是如何在我们的身体中使用的，通过将它们富集在天然存在的“重”形式的碳或氮中，然后在细胞内将它们转化为不同的代谢产物。这使我们能够确定营养物质的途径，以及这种变化是否与不同的饮食，年龄甚至温度有关。我们在本提案中要求的设备使我们能够通过以非常高的灵敏度确定这些重形式的碳和氮的掺入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互动，以支持他们在生物学不同领域的代谢研究，形成了一个高度协作的网络，有利于整个英国的研究。

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.