ESA will extend and integrate electrochemical (EC) and mass spectrometric (MS) technologies to facilitate a range of metabolomics studies in this Roadmap Initiative grant
ESA Biosciences has been awarded a Roadmap Initiative grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate itss ongoing work in metabolomics research.
Under this grant, ESA will extend and integrate electrochemical (EC) and mass spectrometric (MS) technologies to facilitate a range of metabolomics studies.
In addition to ESA, 12 leading academic research institutions were awarded metabolomics technology development grants by the NIH.
"We are extremely proud of this award," said Walter DiGiusto, ESA president.
"This grant not only validates our company's unique qualifications and accomplishments in commercially developing metabolomics research tools, but it also recognises the critical importance of metabolomics itself, alongside genomics and proteomics, in understanding the complex cellular processes of the human organism".
Metabolomics is the study of an organism's low-molecular weight molecules or metabolites (eg, amino acids, peptides, lipids, carbohydrates).
By understanding and detecting metabolic differences, for example, between normal and diseased states, researchers hope to provide earlier and more precise diagnosis and prevention, and safer and more effective treatment of a wide variety of diseases.
One of more than 100 original applicants for funding under the NIH metabolomics programme, ESA proposed that integrating EC and MS technologies will substantially extend the scope, qualitative and quantitative capabilities of liquid chromatographic (LC) analysis in the study of cellular metabolites.
According to Ian Acworth, ESA vice president HPLC products and services, ESA's research will focus on defining a complementary platform between MS and EC - two powerful tools for medical research.
"We will work toward developing a rugged platform that will incorporate both MS and EC detection in parallel, communicating with each other, to produce results that individually would not be possible," said Acworth.
The research will also incorporate ESA's HPLC detection technology, the Corona charged aerosol detector.
"The challenge of metabolomics is that there are so many different metabolites occurring over an extremely wide concentration range.
"As a result, no one technology can completely address the metabolome," noted Paul Gamache, ESA director applications development and support and the principal author of the grant application.
"We are looking to expand the capabilities of EC and MS so that together they form a comprehensive approach, which is the whole idea of metabolomics".
ESA will work with a number of collaborators in its research: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Cornell University Medical School, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston University Medical School, and Burke Medical Research Institute.
A major aspect of the Roadmap Initiative programme is to encourage collaboration among a wide variety of research facilities and institutions.
"Our collaborators provide us with essential expertise in both technology development and real-world applications," said Gamache.
The ESA research will be conducted by Ian Acworth and Paul Gamache and the research team will be overseen by Wayne Matson, the principal investigator.
Matson is director of systems biochemistry at the Bedford VA Hospital.
"Metabolomics is an entirely new approach to predict disease and develop new therapies, and ESA has been a true pioneer in the science," said Matson.
"ESA's history of cutting-edge biomedical research, its engineering expertise and the strengths of its collaborators are unquestionably the main factors in NIH's granting ESA the award."
