Jiejun Wu
Janssen R&D US, USA
Title: The Development and Applications of two Novel Metabolomic Platforms for Drug Discovery Research
Biography
Biography: Jiejun Wu
Abstract
Metabolomics is the "systematic study of the unique chemical fingerprints that specific cellular processes leave behind", which requires the identification and quantification of the endogenous small molecules in a biological sample and data mapping to metabolic pathways. A properly measured metabolic profile provides a comprehensive picture of the underlying physiology, and the profile may be more translatable across different species – in comparison to genetic, or transcriptional, or proteomic profiles. Applications of metabolomics in pharmaceutical R&D are many and rapidly expanding, such as disease characterization, drug efficacy and toxicity monitoring, and discovering individual metabolic characteristics. Together with GC/MS, NMR, and CE/MS, LC/MS is the most widely used technique in metabolomic studies. In order to focus on the desired metabolic pathways, targeted metabolomic panels (rather than global metabolomic profiling) should be employeed, for which very specific analytical protocols are usually required to achieve maximal sensitivity and throughput. Automated data processing and data analysis software tools also play a very important role in metabolomics. In this presentation, we will highlight two novel LC/MS-based targeted metabolomic platforms developed within Janssen R&D - a high sensitivity and high throughput eicosanoids platform and a high sensitivity oxysterols panel - with their application examples to various drug discovery projects.