The Center
The West Coast Metabolomics Center is a cluster center with four research laboratories and a large service core. We provide opportunities for research collaborations, but also make general metabolomics services available to academic or industry investigators. We advance the state-of-the-art in metabolomics research in specific fields of biology but also in technology areas, specifically in computational metabolomics.
The West Coast Metabolomics Center offers fee-based services to biomedical, preclinical, and clinical researchers through its Service Core laboratories. Collaborative research is performed through the four metabolomics Research laboratories. The Center provides educational courses and workshops to inform biologists and clinicians on the wealth and power of metabolomics for translational science and offers an annual Pilot Funding program. The Center also makes Tools and Downloads available for researchers.
WCMC vision
We strive for a reality where high-quality metabolomics service, research, and education drive scientific breakthroughs in healthcare, nutrition, agriculture, and environment, to improve the quality of all life.
What is Metabolomics?
Metabolomics is the study of metabolism, specifically the science of identifying and quantifying the biochemical byproducts of metabolism, called cellular metabolites. This is done using advanced technologies such as mass spectrometry combined with sophisticated statistical methods for data interpretation.
A better understanding of metabolism will help researchers fight major diseases in the United States, from diabetes to cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
One of the “omics” approaches (along with genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics) metabolomics researchers look at the biochemical changes that take place in an organism’s cells during metabolism, identifying thousands of different molecules produced in cells. By quantifying the changes taking place inside cells or body fluids at specific times and under specific environmental conditions, metabolomics offers new insight into cellular biology and a new path of research into complex diseases and their treatment.
