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. 2013 Jan;41(Database issue):D781-6.
doi: 10.1093/nar/gks1004. Epub 2012 Oct 29.

MetaboLights--an open-access general-purpose repository for metabolomics studies and associated meta-data

Kenneth Haug  1 , Reza M Salek, Pablo Conesa, Janna Hastings, Paula de Matos, Mark Rijnbeek, Tejasvi Mahendraker, Mark Williams, Steffen Neumann, Philippe Rocca-Serra, Eamonn Maguire, Alejandra González-Beltrán, Susanna-Assunta Sansone, Julian L Griffin, Christoph Steinbeck
Affiliations

MetaboLights--an open-access general-purpose repository for metabolomics studies and associated meta-data

Kenneth Haug et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Jan.

Abstract

MetaboLights (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights) is the first general-purpose, open-access repository for metabolomics studies, their raw experimental data and associated metadata, maintained by one of the major open-access data providers in molecular biology. Metabolomic profiling is an important tool for research into biological functioning and into the systemic perturbations caused by diseases, diet and the environment. The effectiveness of such methods depends on the availability of public open data across a broad range of experimental methods and conditions. The MetaboLights repository, powered by the open source ISA framework, is cross-species and cross-technique. It will cover metabolite structures and their reference spectra as well as their biological roles, locations, concentrations and raw data from metabolic experiments. Studies automatically receive a stable unique accession number that can be used as a publication reference (e.g. MTBLS1). At present, the repository includes 15 submitted studies, encompassing 93 protocols for 714 assays, and span over 8 different species including human, Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus musculus and Arabidopsis thaliana. Eight hundred twenty-seven of the metabolites identified in these studies have been mapped to ChEBI. These studies cover a variety of techniques, including NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Searching for ‘human’ in the MetaboLights web application.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Part of Study MTBLS1 in ISAcreator with the Metabolite Identification Plugin active.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
A typical workflow, using the ISA framework, for reporting information and submitting it to the MetaboLights database.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Simple technical architecture of a local MetaboLights repository, including web (http) and ftp access.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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