Development of Comprehensive and High-throughput metabolomics techniques and Clinical applications of (pharmaco)metabolomics

Our research focuses on the development of high-performance metabolomics platforms aiming for high-throughput analysis and comprehensive metabolite coverage. This will provide the most complete information on the metabolome in less time and with less costs.

Development of Comprehensive and High-throughput metabolomics technique

A major goal of our research is to overcome one of the major bottlenecks in metabolomic research: the lack of a high-throughput infrastructure in which thousands of samples can be processed in a standardized and cost-effective way (max. a few tens of Euros per sample for a full metabolome profile). The first standardized platforms with limited metabolite numbers have already shown highly relevant associations with diverse health conditions in the epidemiological domain. This creates a real urgency for the high-throughput infrastructure that can profile samples in the translational domain for preventive and clinical research.

Clinical applications of (pharmaco)metabolomics

The predication of the effect (efficiency and toxicity) of a drug in a patient is very important in (i) clinical decision support and (ii) the development of novel drug treatments. We apply our technology and methods to find biomarkers for key disease pathways and toxicity in clinical studies and in in-vitro (organ-on-a-chip) and animal models. For example, we try to understand why 30% of diabetic patients develop kidney disease, and why not all patients benefit from pharmacological treatment to prevent kidney disease. This can help to predict the proper treatment of patients (who needs what treatment), and to develop novel pharmacological interventions taking interindividual differences within patients into account.