Project summary

Over the past ten years, technological developments have caused a revolution in the fields of genomics and proteomics. Suitable technologies are now emerging for the field of Metabolomics. It is a challenge to bring the essential actors together at the European level to devise strategies on how to develop the field of Metabolomics in connection with genomics and proteomics. The present proposal aims to do so by taking the sub-field of Lipidomics as an example. Here, the major new technology is high throughput mass spectrometry, which is now on the verge of being applied to diseases related to the lipidome. To mobilize and network the European basic and medical researchers and industry, a series of dedicated workshops and a concluding conference will be organized on technology development, scientific challenges and medical applications of Lipidomics. One aim is to create a European technology platform bringing together technological know-how and industry. The second aim is to shape the way in which Metabolomics research and in particular Lipidomics research is organised in Europe. Finally, we aim at defining the most suitable ways in which the new technologies can be applied in the clinical setting to assess, cure and prevent membrane lipid disorders