Biological Sciences Division
Newsmakers

October 2016

Article Makes Analyst 2016 ‘Hot Original Research’ List

PNNL research snags the March cover of Analyst.

A team of researchers at PNNL are warming to the news that a January article of theirs was named to a list of "hot original research articles" of 2016 by Analyst, the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. "Hurray," said bioanalytical chemist Erin Baker in an email, "it has been a good week."

Grabbing the honor for them was "Uncovering biologically significant lipid isomers with liquid chromatography, ion mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry." The paper outlines a breakthrough analytical technology approach to analyzing the biological roles lipids play. It is known, for instance, that lipid metabolism is linked to type 2 diabetes, cancer, and lipid storage disease.

But getting to the functional details of those links is problematic. Mass spectrometry, the currently dominant approach for analyzing the lipidome, presents challenges when used by itself.  But coupling it with liquid chromatography and ion mobility spectrometry as described in the manuscript shows great promise for enhanced measurements.

Baker and biochemist Kristin Burnum-Johnson were the corresponding authors. Lipidomics expert Jennifer Kyle was the lead author.

Other scientists at PNNL share credit for the paper: Xing Zhang, Karl Weitz, Matthew Monroe, Yehia Ibrahim, Thomas Metz, and Richard Smith. The paper also included collaborators from Cincinnati Children's Hospital and the University of Washington.