Other Specialized Research Resources
Metabolomics Core Facility
Director: Craig Beeson, PhD
The Metabolomics Core (http://www.musc.edu/metabo/index.html) provides the technology and expertise for the identification and quantification of low molecular weight metabolites (typically <1500 Da). The Metabolomics Core is under the direction of Dr. Craig Beeson, a bioanalytical and organic chemist with wide ranging experience in fluorescence/NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry as applied to metabolic flux analyses. The primary focus of the core facility is the characterization of metabolites related to cellular redox. Because energy metabolism produces both the primary oxidative and reductive species involved in cellular redox reactions, another major focus of the core is on the characterization of energy metabolism in cells, tissues, and whole animals. The facility provides access to traditional, ‘gold standard’ techniques such as isotopomer, radiometric, and spectroscopic analyses. In addition to a dedicated Thermo-Finnegan HPLC-hyphenated ion trap mass spectrometer used for basic biochemical metabolite quantifications, the facility also provides access to a 700 MHz Bruker Biospin NMR with a flow-through probe and a hyphenated Bruker ion trap mass spectrometer to be used for complete molecular characterization and quantification of complex mixtures of metabolites obtained from biological samples (cell lysates, plasma, urine). The Bruker analytical system is supported with an automated sampler and capillary HPLC. Dr. Mirko Henning in the Department of Biochemistry and the director of the MUSC NMR facility provides additional, technical expertise for the NMR instrumentation. Analyses of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in tissue samples is made possible using a Bruker ELESYS500 Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Spectrometer with an aqueous flat cell and tissue slice holder. The ESR spectrometer provides for direct measurement of radical species with moderate lifetimes and post-hoc analyses of short-lived radical species using spin traps. Dr. Andrew Gelasco in the Department of Nephrology provides additional technical support for the ESR spectrometer instrument. Also provided is access and expertise in ‘cutting edge’ techniques that include hyphenated biosensor-based metabolic flux assays and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging of protein arrays. Dr. Beeson’s lab is a development site for Lumera’s innovative SPR Protein Microarray Imaging Instrument. The microarrays consist of immobilized antibodies that can capture specific proteins for which the level of metabolite modification (i.e., carbonylation, sulfenic acids, etc.) can then be quantified with secondary reagents. Dr. Beeson’s lab is also a development site for the Seahorse Biosciences fluorometric biosensor technology used to measure metabolic fluxes (i.e., oxygen consumption, CO2 and lactate extrusion) in real time using multiwell plates. The basic Seahorse applications enable high throughput metabolic measurements with small sample sizes that have been adapted by both academia and industry. Innovative adaptations of the technology developed in the core facility are providing access to real time flux measurements of redox species such as hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide.