Metabolomics Service

Rutgers Biomedical And Health Sciences, Newark NJ

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

METABOLOMICS SERVICE SHARED RESOURCE PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Metabolomics Service shared resource (Metabolomics) of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is a Cancer Center managed shared resource whose purpose is to enable state-of-the-art analysis of cancer metabolism. The past decade has seen a surge of interest in tumor metabolism, driven by the recognition that oncogenes up-regulate metabolism and that certain metabolites can themselves cause cancer (“oncometabolites”). The discovery of the best-established oncometabolite, 2-hydroxyglutarate, involved a central contribution from Joshua Rabinowitz, Director of this Metabolomics shared resource. The shared resource’s mission is two-fold: 1) to continue to push the frontiers of tumor metabolism measurement, enabling additional such scientific discoveries that significantly impact cancer diagnosis and therapy and 2) to provide CINJ members with easy, cost-effective access to these capabilities, thereby enhancing productivity across the consortium. To this end, the shared resource provides access to basic metabolism measurement capabilities, like oxygen consumption, which involve instruments that are readily shared (e.g., Seahorse). It also provides more advanced services, such as large-scale quantitative metabolite measurement by LC-MS. In addition, it develops and collaboratively applies cutting-edge metabolism measurement capabilities that are unique or available in only a handful of institutions world-wide (e.g. quantitative analysis of tumor-host metabolic interplay in vivo using isotope tracers). Building from informal collaborations that started in 2011, the consortium cancer center, with support from CCSG Developmental Funds, established a CCSG-supported developing shared resource for Metabolomics. This shared resource involved substantial investments by both Rutgers and Princeton Universities, in the form of multiple instruments purchased by each university. This shared resource not only met the existing need for metabolic analysis, but also encouraged investigators, through a variety of programmatic platforms, to pursue cancer metabolism research. MSR, Page 1 of 1; DRAFT 1/18/18 8:28 AM !