In search of the metabolome

Metabolomics has come of age in Australia with the establishment of a new metabolomics platform.

In the November/December issue of ALS, we talk to three researchers leading the way in metabolomics in Australia: how Paul Chambers applies metabolomic techniques to wine yeasts; how the metabolome of the Leishmania parasite took Malcolm McConville from Antarctic biology to tropical parasitology; and how Ute Roessner, who was part of the Max Planck group that started the metabolomics revolution a decade ago, is applying the field to plants.

We also delve into protein discovery, profiling Jeff Gorman from the Proteomics Discovery Centre, and how he is deciphering viral and host protein interactions; along with Michelle Hill, who is hoping to take proteomics into the clinic for Barrett’s oesophagus.

In our big preview of the upcoming Australian Health & Medical Research Congress, Graeme O’Neill talks to Elaine Fuchs about skin and hair-follicle stem cells; Kate McDonald talks to Helen Ball about the pathophysiology of the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism; and Fiona Wylie talks to Mike McGuckin about mice called Winnie and Eeyore and how they are helping understand mucosal immunology.

We also profile:

• Mark Smyth, on cancer and immunoediting

• Damian Purcell on how HIV has thrown up an interesting roadblock to RNAi-based therapeutics

• Ricky Johnstone on histone deacetylase inhibitors and oncology’s great hope

• and the Sanger Institute’s Peter Campbell on sequencing the cancer genome

We also investigate the dawn of the 15-minute genome and look at all of the latest products and methods on the market in Lab News.

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