Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

This grant will allow the purchase of robotic liquid-handling system which is essential for high-throughput sample preparation of metabolomics and lipidomics samples in a newly-established laboratory at Concordia University. The system is capable of solvent-precipitation, solid-phase extraction, magnetic extraction and liquid-liquid extraction in a 96- or 384-well plate format, thus providing flexibility for all the main sample preparation types currently employed in the Vuckovic laboratory. All of this sample preparation work is currently performed manually by graduate students which severely limits our ability to carry out large-scale studies on thousands of samples using our high-resolution mass spectrometers LTQ Orbitrap Velos ETD system and Agilent 6550 quadrupole-time-of-flight instrument recently installed in the Vuckovic laboratory. There is no similar equipment available at Concordia University. This equipment is critical for Vuckovic's research program which includes studies (i) to develop new analytical methods to characterize the low abundance metabolites in human biological samples such as blood and tissues, (ii) to systematically characterize metabolite-protein binding and study the dependence of metabolite concentrations on circadian rhythm, (iii) to evaluate eicosanoids as possible biomarkers of anaphylaxis using a large cross-Canada registry of urine samples, (iv) to study the immune system response to nanoparticle and mycotoxin exposure, (v) to evaluate the exposure of Canadian population to multiple mycotoxins using new assay developed in our laboratory and (vi) to perform large-scale metabolomics and lipidomics studies to support preventative health studies in Concordia's PERFORM Centre. The equipment is critical to establish Vuckovic laboratory on an international level in analytical and clinical metabolomics/lipidomics and sample preparation. The requested purchase will also serve as a state-of-the-art hands-on training tool for students as they design/execute high-throughput mass spectrometry-based bioanalytical assays.