SMN News

SMN News 2024

SMN Symposium 2024 will be held at University of Stirling 22nd- 23rd October 2024, starting with an early career training course on Monday 21st October 2024. For those interested in sponsoring SMN2024 please get in touch with local organiser Richard Broughton in the first instance (richard.broughton@stir.ac.uk)

SMN News 2023

SMN 2023, SUERC, East Kilbride, November 2023

120 members of the Scottish Metabolomics Network gathered at the Crutherland Hotel, East Kilbride on 15th and 16th November 2023, brought together by lead organiser Prof Douglas Morrison. Titled “From Isotopocules to Metabolomes”.

With an opening keynote address from Professor John Langley, University of Southampton: Unravelling complexity with different hyphens. This was followed by a session on Technology and people including a presentation from Dr Nik Ogryzo from UKRI and the Technician Commitment, sessions on mechanistic biology and lipidomics and the gut and the microbiome. An evening dinner to entertain.

On Thursday we opened with a session on ‘Food, aquaculture and the environment’, followed by Cancer, ‘The interface between metabolomics and stable isotopes.’ The event was closed with an invited plenary from Dr Isabel Garcia-Perez from Imperial College London on applications of NMR on metabolic phenotyping in dietary assessment and personalised nutrition. Followed by a tour of SUERC.

Spotlight on Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling

Monica Betancor, Richard Broughton and James Dick - members of the nutrition and analytical services group, from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling - attended the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL) in Nantes, France in July 2023. Dr Richard Broughton gave an oral presentation on ‘The Future of Sustainable Aquq Feeds’ and a poster presentation on ‘Land based sources of LC-PUFA as ingredients for salmon feed’, focusing on novel oils derived from GM oilseeds and the use of untargeted lipidomics and targeted lipid mediator analysis to ascertain lipid biochemical alterations stemming from these novel diets.

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography 2023

Ongoing collaboration of the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling with the EU funded ECOTIP consortium, with partners from the Danish Technical University and The Arctic University of Norway, resulted in an oral presentation at ASLO 2023 (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography), presented by Dr. Sigrún Jónasdóttir (DTU). The work seeks to understand the role lipids play within the physiology, and ultimately the life cycle, of Calanus species within the Arctic and the potential effect this may have on carbon sequestration.

2022:

• Upcoming Events

• The Rattray Lab and the Strathclyde Centre for Molecular Bioscience (SCMB)

• The Metabolomics Society Conference 2022

• The Nutrition group from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling

• The TALENT Commission Parliamentary Reception

• CTLS Online Congress

• Congratulations!

• Funding Success!

• Publications

• Glasgow Polyomics Courses

• SMN Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

• Industry news

• Current Opportunities

• Acknowledgements

Twitter updates: #ScotMetNet

Upcoming Events

This year’s Scottish Metabolomics Network Symposium 2022 will take place on Thurs 3rd – Fri 4th November 2022. Location: P&J Live Aberdeen: https://www.pandjlive.com/

The Rattray Lab and the Strathclyde Centre for Molecular Bioscience (SCMB)

The Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS) has always had a strong contribution to metabolomics research, with Dave Watson making a huge impact in the way high-resolution MS and HILIC-based chromatography have been used by the community. With Dave retiring, the Rattray group has looked to continue the way mass spectrometry instrument and separation technologies are implemented within metabolomics research. Working alongside colleagues within SIPBS and the Pure and Applied Chemistry department, we have formed a new collaborative and multi-disciplinary research centre that spans research groups across the Faculties of Science and Engineering – the Strathclyde Centre for Molecular Bioscience (SCMB). The centre’s underlying ethos is to enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of human disease to facilitate the development of new treatments in human healthcare, and metabolomics technologies sit as a core capability. A recent investment of £1.5M has seen us purchase a range of mass spectrometry instrumentation that will allow us the centre to act as a point of convergence for a huge range of biomolecular analyses – with metabolites being a primary focus.

Installed in summer 2021, the main untargeted metabolomics instrument is a Thermo Exploris 240 set up with pos/neg switching C18 and HILIC methodologies alongside the AquireX functionality (the system being akin to a next-generation Q-Exactive). It benefits from automatic exclusion list generation that allows deep-scanning identification of QC samples. The system also has an internal in-house library of over 600 metabolites embedded into each analysis as an inclusion list. Supporting this system, the centre also benefits from Shimadzu 8060-NX and 8050 instruments used for targeted LC-MS work with a focus on primary metabolism and toxicology workflows – with a Shimadzu G-CMS TQ-8050 being installed in July 2022. These instruments are also run alongside one of Dave’s old Exactive systems that still have life in the sogevac-pump yet!

The Metabolomics Society Conference 2022

In July, the Metabolomics society 2022 meeting took place in Valencia Spain. Several groups from within the network were in attendance including representatives from the Burgess group (University of Edinburgh) and the Rattray group (University of Strathclyde), as well as Will (JHI). Standout presentations included the plenary lectures of Prof. Ron Heeren (Maastricht University, NL) on the advancements of MS imaging at greater speeds and resolutions than could be imagined five years earlier, and of Prof. Asaph Aharoni (Weizmann Institute, IL) on the development of MS/MS and MSn libraries for over 10,000 plant and microbial secondary metabolites, as well as MS imaging approaches in plant physiological studies.  

Four PhD students from the Rattray group attended the Metabolomics Society Annual conference in Valencia. Domenica presented work on metabolomics used to understand metabolic rewiring in breast cancer upon drug treatment. Abdullah’s poster described a metabolomics approach used to investigate off-target effects in pioglitazone treatment. Tricia’s poster focused on developing new methodologies to analyse biological samples from Crohn’s and colitis patients. Natalia presented work that described the implementation of general additive models in pediatric research. PI Nik gave a talk on the issues of translating biological models of the ageing metabolome into clinically relevant biomarkers.

Karl and Luke Johnston from the University of Edinburgh also attended, with Karl presenting on Mass Difference Networks at a workshop titled ‘Hitchhikers’ Guide to Networks in Metabolomics’ which focused upon graphical and network interpretation of large metabolomics datasets. Luke presented a poster on his work applying real-time metabolomics bioprocess monitoring and untargeted, rapid ion mobility mass spectrometry to drive improved monoclonal antibody yield in Chinese hamster ovary cell bioprocesses.

Karl was also excited to attend the Metabolomics Quality Assurance and Quality Control Consortium (MQACC) dinner, which was a great opportunity to meet the team (many of whom had previously just been voices over Zoom!) and discuss best practises for untargeted metabolomics.

Will from The James Hutton Institute presented his work upon nitrogen supplementation in oat grains which illustrated that whilst higher levels of nitrogen enhance yields, protein and beta-glucans, it negatively impacts the avenanthramides and a number of health beneficial secondary metabolites.

Will also attended the international affiliates meeting where he discussed the current activities of the SMN and how these activities can be linked with the wider networks, especially in the areas of training links and laboratory visits to representatives within the European affiliates such as the FRMF (France), NMC (Netherlands), SSMET (Spain), SMS (Switzerland), and others.

The Nutrition Group, from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling

In June, the Nutrition group from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, attended the International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding in Sorrento, Italy. Several group members gave both poster and oral presentations, with the role of lipids a key theme within the group’s work.

A key development was the use of lipidomics to study the parity of oils derived from GM sources, with a poster illustrating whether isomeric alterations exist within the fish fed these novel diets and whether any lipid-wide alterations were detected within different fish tissues. This may potentially lead to alterations in inflammation, owing to the roles of lipids as inflammatory mediators. This forms a core part of both Dr Richard Broughton and Dr Monica Betancor’s work within the fish nutrition field. The work was picked up by International Aquafeed magazine and will be published later this year, with a paper to follow shortly.

The TALENT Commission Parliamentary Reception

Natalie Homer (Mass Spectrometry Core, University of Edinburgh) attended the TALENT Commission Parliamentary Reception. Natalie said, “On the evening of 24th May 2022, I was lucky enough to be invited to the TALENT Commission Parliamentary Reception hosted by the Research England-funded TALENT programme at the House of Lords. The TALENT Commission is the outcome of 20 months of in-depth research, stakeholder engagement and evidence gathering within the sector on technical skills, roles and careers. The Commission has generated new strategic insights into the UK’s technical community in higher education and research and sets out a vision for the future of the UK's technical talent. It makes 16 overarching recommendations to guide the delivery of this vision and a series of targeted recommendations for specific stakeholder groups, including employers, government policymakers, funders and professional bodies.

I was pleased to be able to represent the University of Edinburgh both as a core facility manager and as the Chair of the University of Edinburgh Technician Steering Committee and also to have a chance to talk to colleagues across the country. With the 16 recommendations, I am hopeful that the TALENT Commission report will make a real difference to technicians and those choosing a technical career.”

Core Technologies for Life Sciences (CTLS) Online Congress - contribution of SMN members

Core Technologies for Life Sciences (CTLS) is a European networking non-profit association that brings scientists together, technical and administrative staff working across the world in core facilities, research infrastructures and other shared resource laboratories. For the CTLS online congress from 13th-15th September 2021, Natalie Homer (University of Edinburgh) co-chaired a session with Gabriel Martins. The session focused on “Methodological and technological development in core facilities”, and in it, Phil Whitfield gave a presentation entitled ‘'Opportunities and Challenges in a Metabolomics and Lipidomics Facility'’ where Phil gave a great run-down of the convergent approach to lipidomic analysis. Later in the week, Tessa Moses (from Edinomics, University of Edinburgh) and Natalie held a community workshop titled ‘The Importance of scientific publications from core facilities’, which 23 people attended and where we conducted a poll and discussion-based workshop to highlight resources, guidelines and initiatives to recognise core facility contribution in publications. We would like to reach other audiences and have plans to build upon what we learnt from the workshop.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to James Weatherill (University of Edinburgh), who won runner-up in the poster prize competition at the Mass Spectrometry & Advances in the Clinical Lab (MSACL) conference in Monterey, California, held on April 5th – 8th, 2022 - his first international face-to-face meeting! James's poster title was 'Shaping the Future of Estrogen Analysis: Assessing Separation and Detection of Metabolites by Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry', and the authors included;

James Weatherill, Susan E. Slade, Russell Mortishire-Smith, Jonathan Fox, Shazia Khan, Nina Denver, Diego F. Cobice, Mark Kane, Margaret R. MacLean, Ruth Andrew.

The research was done in collaboration with Strathclyde University and Waters Corporation.

James said, “The MSACL conference 2022 was the first international conference that I have had the opportunity to attend during the course of my PhD. Set in the picturesque backdrop of Monterey, California; the conference had a packed, week-long programme full of interesting workshops, panel discussions, poster presentations, and plenary sessions, covering topics from the development and applications of novel MS technologies in understanding the underlying mechanism of disease to how we can implement MS into clinical diagnosis. The conference organisers champion early-career development, so I was given the opportunity to co-chair the MS imaging session. Alongside this, I presented a poster on my work comparing ion mobility-MS approaches for the analysis of small molecules, for which I won second place in the poster competition! Having the chance to discuss (in-person) my research with such a diverse group of scientists and clinicians was an overwhelmingly positive experience.” 

Funding Success!

Allwood lab (James Hutton Institute): BBSRC BARIToNE - Barley Industrial Training Network

https://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/barley-scientists-future-get-%C2%A39m-boost

Project - Defining the genetic basis of barley metabolite content to improve nutrient use efficiency, crop quality and resilience with reduced inputs.

PhD student George Epaku commencing September 2022

Publications

Congratulations to all members of the SMN community who recently published their research!

Huertas, R., Allwood, J.W., Hancock, R.D., Stewart, D (2022). Iron and Zinc Bioavailability in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is Dependent on Chemical Composition and Cooking Method. Food Chem. 387: 132900. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132900

Allwood, J.W., Martinez-Martin, P., Xu, Y., Cowan, A., Pont, S., Griffiths, I., Sungurtas, J., Clarke, S., Goodacre, R., Marshall, A., Stewart, D., Howarth, C. (2021). Assessing the impact of nitrogen supplementation in oats across multiple growth locations and years with targeted phenotyping and high-resolution metabolite profiling approaches, Food Chem. 355: 129585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129585

Allwood, J.W., Williams, A., Uthe, H., van Dam, N.M., Mur, L.A.J., Grant, M.R., Pétriacq, P. (2021).  Unravelling Plant Responses to Stress—The Importance of Targeted and Untargeted Metabolomics. Metabolites 11: 558. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo11080558

Biancacci, C., McDougall, G.J., Allwood, J.W. et al. (2021). LC-MSn profiling reveals seasonal variation in the composition of Osmundea pinnatifida (Hudson) Stackhouse. J Appl. Phycol. 33, 2443–2458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-021-02482-4

Alkhalefah, A., Dunn, W.B., Allwood, J.W., Parry, K.L., Houghton, F.D., Ashton, N., Glazier, J.D. (2021). Maternal intermittent fasting during pregnancy induces fetal growth restriction and down-regulated placental system A amino acid transport in the rat. Clin Sci 135 (11): 1445–1466. https://doi.org/10.1042/CS20210137

Dobani, S., Latimer, C., McDougall, G.J., Allwood, J.W., Pereira-Caro, G., Moreno-Rojas, J.M., Ternan, N.G.L., Pourshahidi, K., Lawther, R., Tuohy, K.M., Del Rio, D., O'Connor, G., Rowland, I., Almutairi, T.M., Crozier, A., Gill, C.I.R. (2021). Ex vivo fecal fermentation of human ileal fluid collected after raspberry consumption modifies (poly)phenolics and modulates genoprotective effects in colonic epithelial cells. Redox Biology, 40: 101862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2021.101862

Lima, Rd.C.L., Böcker, U., McDougall, G.J., Allwood, J.W., Afseth, N.K., et al. (2021) Magnetic ligand fishing using immobilized DPP-IV for identification of antidiabetic ligands in lingonberry extract. PLOS ONE 16(2): e0247329. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247329

Hurst E, Homer N, Denham S, MacFarlane E, Campbell S, Boswinkel M, Mellanby R ‘Development and application of a LC-MS/MS assay for simultaneous analysis of 25-hydroxyvitamin-D and 3-epi-25-hydroxyvitamin-D metabolites in canine serum’ (2020) J Steroid Molecular Biochem

Denver, N, Homer NZ, Andrew R, MacLean AM ‘Estrogen metabolites in a small cohort of patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension; (2020) Pulmonary Circulation 10, 1-5

Bode, E. F., Markby, G. R., Boag, A. M., Martinez-Pereira, Y., Corcoran, B. M., Farquharson, C., Sooy, K., Homer, N., Jamieson, P. M., & Culshaw, G. J. Glucocorticoid metabolism and the action of 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 in canine congestive heart failure.(2020) Veterinary Journal 258, 105456.

Lemos, H., Mohamed, E., Ou, R., McCardle, C., Zheng, X., McGuire, K., Homer, N., Mole, D. J., Huang, L., & Mellor, A. L.. Co-treatments to Boost IDO Activity and Inhibit Production of Downstream Catabolites Induce Durable Suppression of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.(2020) Frontiers in immunology, 11, 1256.

Sinha R, Lockman KA, Homer NZM, Bower E, Brinkman P, Knobel HH, Fallowfield JA, Jaap AJ, Hayes PC, Plevris JN. ‘Volatomic analysis identifies compounds that can stratify non-alcoholic fatty liver disease’ JHEP Rep. 2020 Jun 15;2(5):100137. doi: 10.1016/j.jhepr.2020.100137. eCollection 2020 Oct.PMID: 32775974

Chen, Y, Kunath T, Simpson J, Homer N, Sylantyev S ‘Synaptic signalling in a network of dopamine neurons: what prevents proper intercellular crosstalk?’ FEBS Letters (2020)

Hurst EA, Homer NZ, Mellanby RJ.’Vitamin D Metabolism and Profiling in Veterinary Species‘ Metabolites. 2020 Sep 15;10(9):E371. doi: 10.3390/metabo10090371.PMID: 32942601

Hutka M, Kadam P, Van Saen D, Homer NZM, Onofre J, Wallace WHB, Smith LB, Stukenborg JB, Goossens E, Mitchell RT.’ Fertility Preservation in Childhood Cancer: Endocrine Activity in Prepubertal Human Testis Xenografts Exposed to a Pubertal Hormone Environment’ Cancers (Basel). 2020 Sep 30;12(10):2830.

Leverrier-Penna S, Mitchell RT, Becker E, Lecante L, Ben Maamar M, Homer N, Lavoué V, Kristensen DM, Dejucq-Rainsford N, Jégou B, Mazaud-Guittot S. Ibuprofen is deleterious for the development of first trimester human fetal ovary ex vivo. Hum Reprod. 2018 Mar 1;33(3):482-493

Anderson AJ, Andrew R, Homer NZM, Hughes KA, Boyle LD, Nixon M, Karpe F, Stimson RH, Walker BR. ‘Effects of Obesity And Insulin on Tissue-Specific Recycling Between Cortisol And Cortisone in Men’.J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2020 Dec 3:dgaa896. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgaa896.PMID: 33270115

Karailiev, P., Hlavacova, N., Chmelova, M., Homer, N., & Jezova, D. (2021). Tight junction proteins in the small intestine and prefrontal cortex of female rats exposed to stress of chronic isolation starting early in life. Neurogastroenterology and motility : the official journal of the European Gastrointestinal Motility Society, 33(6), e14084. https://doi.org/10.1111/nmo.14084

Faqehi, A. M., Denham, S. G., Naredo, G., Cobice, D. F., Khan, S., Simpson, J. P., Sabil, G., Upreti, R., Gibb, F., Homer, N. Z., & Andrew, R. (2021). Derivatization with 2-hydrazino-1-methylpyridine enhances sensitivity of analysis of 5α-dihydrotestosterone in human plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Journal of chromatography. A, 1640, 461933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2021.461933

Bell, R., Villalobos, E., Nixon, M., Miguelez-Crespo, A., Murphy, L., Fawkes, A., Coutts, A., Sharp, M., Koerner, M. V., Allan, E., Meijer, O. C., Houtman, R., Odermatt, A., Beck, K. R., Denham, S. G., Lee, P., Homer, N., Walker, B. R., & Morgan, R. A. (2021). Carbonyl reductase 1 amplifies glucocorticoid action in adipose tissue and impairs glucose tolerance in lean mice. Molecular metabolism, 48, 101225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2021.101225

Gifford, R. M., O'Leary, T. J., Wardle, S. L., Double, R. L., Homer, N., Howie, A. F., Greeves, J. P., Anderson, R. A., Woods, D. R., & Reynolds, R. M. (2021). Reproductive and metabolic adaptation to multistressor training in women. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism, 321(2), E281–E291. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpendo.00019.2021

Puigoriol-Illamola, D., Companys-Alemany, J., McGuire, K., Homer, N., Leiva, R., Vázquez, S., Mole, D. J., Griñán-Ferré, C., & Pallàs, M. (2021). Inhibition of 11β-HSD1 Ameliorates Cognition and Molecular Detrimental Changes after Chronic Mild Stress in SAMP8 Mice. Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland), 14(10), 1040. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph14101040

Hurst, E. A., Mellanby, R. J., Handel, I., Griffith, D. M., Rossi, A. G., Walsh, T. S., Shankar-Hari, M., Dunning, J., Homer, N. Z., Denham, S. G., Devine, K., Holloway, P. A., Moore, S. C., Thwaites, R. S., Samanta, R. J., Summers, C., Hardwick, H. E., Oosthuyzen, W., Turtle, L., Semple, M. G., … ISARIC4C Investigators (2021). Vitamin D insufficiency in COVID-19 and influenza A, and critical illness survivors: a cross-sectional study. BMJ open, 11(10), e055435. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055435

Boulton, K., Wilson, P. W., Bishop, V. R., Perez, J. H., Wilkinson, T., Hogan, K., Homer, N., Robert, C., Smith, J., Meddle, S. L., Dunn, I. C., & Watson, K. (2021). Parental methyl-enhanced diet and in ovo corticosterone affect first-generation Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) development, behaviour and stress response. Scientific reports, 11(1), 21092. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99812-w

Carter, R. N., Gibbins, M., Barrios-Llerena, M. E., Wilkie, S. E., Freddolino, P. L., Libiad, M., Vitvitsky, V., Emerson, B., Le Bihan, T., Brice, M., Su, H., Denham, S. G., Homer, N., Mc Fadden, C., Tailleux, A., Faresse, N., Sulpice, T., Briand, F., Gillingwater, T., Ahn, K. H., … Morton, N. M. (2021). The hepatic compensatory response to elevated systemic sulfide promotes diabetes. Cell reports, 37(6), 109958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109958

Stoye, D. Q., Boardman, J. P., Osmond, C., Sullivan, G., Lamb, G., Black, G. S., Homer, N.Z., Nelson, N., Theodorsson, E., Reynolds, R. M., & Mörelius, E. (2022). Preterm birth and infant diurnal cortisol regulation. Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition, fetalneonatal-2021-323296. Advance online publication.

Stoye, D. Q., Boardman, J. P., Osmond, C., Sullivan, G., Lamb, G., Black, G. S., Homer, N., Nelson, N., Theodorsson, E., Mörelius, E., & Reynolds, R. M. (2022). Saliva cortisol diurnal variation and stress responses in term and preterm infants. Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition

Kyle, C. J., Nixon, M., Homer, N., Morgan, R. A., Andrew, R., Stimson, R. H., & Walker, B. R. (2022). ABCC1 modulates negative feedback control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in vivo in humans. Metabolism: clinical and experimental, 128, 155118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2021.155118

Hastie, C., Thompson, A., Perkins, M., Langford, V. S., Eddleston, M., & Homer, N. Z. (2021). Selected Ion Flow Tube-Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS) as an Alternative to Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) for the Analysis of Cyclohexanone and Cyclohexanol in Plasma. ACS omega, 6(48), 32818–32822. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c03827

Ginnell, L., O'Carroll, S., Ledsham, V., Jiménez Sánchez, L., Stoye, D. Q., Sullivan, G., Hall, J., Homer, N., Boardman, J. P., Fletcher-Watson, S., & Reynolds, R. M. (2022). Emotion regulation and cortisol response to the still-face procedure in preterm and full-term infants. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 141, 105760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105760

Ostinelli, G., Laforest, S., Denham, S. G., Gauthier, M. F., Drolet-Labelle, V., Scott, E., Hould, F. S., Marceau, S., Homer, N., Bégin, C., Andrew, R., & Tchernof, A. (2022). Increased adipose tissue indices of androgen catabolism and aromatization in women with metabolic dysfunction. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, dgac261. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac261

Giuseppe Taurino, Ruhi Deshmukh, Victor H. Villar, Martina Chiu, Robin Shaw, Ann Hedley, Engy Shokry, David Sumpton, Erica Dander, Giovanna D'Amico, Ovidio Bussolati and Saverio Tardito. (2022). Mesenchymal stromal cells cultured in physiological conditions sustain citrate secretion with glutamate anaplerosis. Molecular Metabolism, 63 (2022) 101532 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101532

Emily J. Kay, Karla Paterson, Carla Riero-Domingo, David Sumpton, J. Henry M. Däbritz, Saverio Tardito, Claudia Boldrini, Juan R. Hernandez-Fernaud, Dimitris Athineos, Sandeep Dhayade, Ekaterina Stepanova, Enio Gjerga, Lisa J. Neilson, Sergio Lilla, Ann Hedley, Grigorios Koulouras, Grace McGregor, Craig Jamieson, Radia Marie Johnson, Morag Park, Kristina Kirschner, Crispin Miller, Jurre J. Kamphorst, Fabricio Loayza-Puch, Julio Saez-Rodriguez, Massimiliano Mazzone, Karen Blyth, Michele Zagnoni & Sara Zanivan. Cancer-associated fibroblasts require proline synthesis by PYCR1 for the deposition of pro-tumorigenic extracellular matrix. Nature Metabolism, 4, 693–710. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00582-0

Rachana Patel, Catriona A. Ford, Lisa Rodgers, Linda K. Rushworth, Janis Fleming, Ernest Mui, Tong Zhang, David Watson, Victoria Lynch, Gillian Mackay, David Sumpton, Owen J. Sansom, Johan Vande Voorde, Hing Y. Leung. Cyclocreatine suppresses creatine metabolism and impairs prostate cancer progression. Cancer Res canres.1301.2021-5-4 10:59:25.103. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-21-1301

Glasgow Polyomics Courses

Glasgow Polyomics are running two courses that may be of interest to the SMN community. Firstly, the Introduction to ‘Omics course aims to give attendees an understanding of the different ‘Omics, experimental design, data analysis and statistics. Secondly, the Metabolomics Data Analysis course aims to give you a grounding in LC-MS metabolomics data analysis, using the Polyomics integrated Metabolomics Pipeline (PiMP) and Metaboanalyst. This course is aimed at people who already have an understanding of the instrumentation used to generate LCMS data and wish to deepen their understanding of the data analysis.

SMN Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

If you would like to join the EDI group and make a difference or need support, you can confidentially contact us at sntshang@ed.ac.uk or Will.Allwood@hutton.ac.uk. More information here

Industry news

Check out these webinars from Shimadzu https://www.shimadzu.co.uk/webinars

Current Opportunities

PhD project: Developing the new paradigm of ‘meta-plant pathogens’ by studying the compositional and metabolomic dynamics of a Meta-Fusarium sp. exposed to abiotic and biotic perturbations.

Host Institute: INRAE, UR 1264 MycSA (Mycology and Food Safety), Bordeaux https://www6.bordeauxaquitaine.inrae.fr/mycsa/

Supervision: Florence FORGET (florence.forget@inrae.fr)

Co-supervision: Jean-Michel SAVOIE (jean-michel.savoie@inrae.fr)

Context and objectives of the PhD project:

Fusarium spp. are causal agents of Fusarium head blight (FHB), one of the most devastating fungal diseases affecting cereal crops. In addition to yield losses, some of these fungal species are responsible for grain contamination with mycotoxins that are a major health and food safety concern. Over 20 Fusarium species have been associated with FHB. The species Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium tricinctum, Fusarium poae, Fusarium sporotrichioides, and Fusarium langsethiae are reported as the most common species encountered in Europe. All these Fusarium species can produce one or more mycotoxins including type A and type B trichothecenes, zearalenone, enniatins and beauvericin. 

Despite intensive research over the past decades, recommended agronomic practices and current mitigation strategies are not enough to guarantee mycotoxin levels complying with European regulatory limits. Up to now, investigations aiming at providing bases for the development of mycotoxin control strategies were virtually exclusively conducted considering “one pathogen-one disease”, an approach that has proved itself insufficient to reach a comprehensive understanding of the FHB disease process and mycotoxin accumulation in crops. Indeed, the blend of Fusarium species in interaction inside a shared niche is likely to result in a production of mycotoxins having its own regulation that cannot be predicted by knowing what happens in single species cultures. Taking a meta-view at Fusarium and breaking habits with the development of the innovative concept of a meta-pathogen would be a disruptive innovation in order to progress in fighting contaminations of cereals by mycotoxins.

In this context, the aim of the present PhD project is to investigate the regulation of the production of mycotoxins by what we call a Meta-Fusarium sp. The latter - comprising the seven major Fusarium species involved in FHB - will be considered in ecophysiology analyses as an individual fungus that operates as a whole. To achieve its goal, the project will be set around two main objectives:

• To characterize fungal development kinetics and evolution of secondary metabolite production profiles of Meta-Fusarium sp. under varying environmental conditions.

• To demonstrate the added value of the Meta-Fusarium sp. approach for the identification of new eco-friendly control strategies to fight against mycotoxin accumulation in cereals.

Skills expected to be acquired throughout this PhD project:  The project is based on a multidisciplinary approach combining fungal microbiology, fungal DNA quantification (Taqman QPCR), metabolomics (LC et UPLC/DAD, LC/HRMS) and tests on plant organs.

Required competencies: Knowledge in fungal biology. Skills in biochemical analytical techniques, in basic molecular biology and biostatistics.  

Funding: This PhD project is funded within the TEAMTOX ANR project (2022-2026). The scheduled start date is the 01/12/2022.

How to apply: You can apply until 22 August 2022. Send your application to Dr Florence Forget (florence.forget@inrae.fr) and Dr Jean-Michel Savoie (jean-michel.savoie@inrae.fr) consisting your CV, a cover letter and a recommendation letter from the person who supervised your BSc and/or Master thesis.

Informal enquiries about the position are welcome by email to florence.forget@inrae.fr.

Associated Doctoral school: « Sciences de la Vie et de la Sante » – Bordeaux University  https://ed-svs.u-bordeaux.fr/     

Acknowledgements

Photographs: all photos in this issue are from visitbritain.com, Natalie Homer, James Weatherill, Gavin Blackburn, Richard Broughton, Nik Rattray, Elva-Maria Novoa del Toro, Luke Johnston, Will Allwood and Serge Rudaz. Thanks to everyone for your contributions.  Any corrections or last-minute updates for the web version, let me know sntshang@ed.ac.uk.

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