Stable Isotope & Metabolomics Core

Leadership

Irwin Kurland, MD

Director
Yunping Qiu, PhD

Operational Manager
Min Cai, PhD

Mass Spectrometer Operator
Xue-Liang Du, MD, PhD

Seahorse Technician
Li Liu

Bioinformatic specialist

Request Services

Services and expertise of the SIMC are available to investigators new to diabetes research, as well as to investigators working on diabetes-related projects that can be enriched and extended by the use of the expertise and facilities of this Core.

For Seahorse: xueliang.du@einsteinmed.org
For Mass Spectrometric assays : irwin.kurland@einsteinmed.org and Yunping.qiu@einsteinmed.org
For Bioinformatics : Li.Liu@einstein.yu.edu

Mission

The goal of the Stable Isotope and Metabolomics Core (SIMC) is to provide to Einstein-Mount Sinai Diabetes Research Center research investigators cost effective, efficient and robust platforms for the determination of metabolites/lipids, as well as in vivo and in vitro flux assessments. These mass spectrometric platforms are designed to cover interlocking metabolite and lipid pathways, and to help improve our understanding of conditions which change fuel utilization and biosynthesis in cytosolic and mitochondrial metabolic pathways in order to guide further integrative systems biology analyses of the underlying mechanisms in diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetic complications. SIMC analyses complement those performed in the Animal Physiology Core, such as measurements of whole body carbohydrate/fatty acid oxidation, energy expenditure, tissue-specific insulin sensitivity, glucose, protein and fatty acid metabolism.

To accomplish these goals in one facility, the SIMC has updated its technology infrastructure to include the latest Seahorse XFe24 and XFe96 Seahorse Flux Analyzers for assessment of glycolytic and mitochondrial energetics, as well as the latest Sciex 6500+ QTRAP with Selexion ion mobility for targeted LC/MS metabolite and lipidomic analyses, and the latest Shimadzu LC-9030 quadrupole Time of Flight with Nexera UPLC for untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic analyses.

Objectives

To determine metabolomic/lipidomic profiles for the diagnosis/characterization of physiological and pathophysiological states in cells, tissues and biofluids (plasma, urine, stool, etc.).
To perform in vivo stable isotope substrate assays to determine rates of protein synthesis, lipogenesis, peripheral glucose disposal, hepatic glucose recycling, glucose-glycerol cycling and Cori cycling, high energy phosphate (ATP, creatine phosphate) turnover, and in vitro stable isotope flux dissections of metabolic pathways.
To perform assessments of glycolysis (extracellular acidification rates, glycolytic ATP production rates) and mitochondrial oxygen consumption (mitochondrial respiration and mitochondrial ATP production rates) in tissue explants, primary isolated and tissue culture cells using Seahorse Biosciences Flux Analyzers.
To advise and instruct ES-DRC investigators and their students, fellows and technical staff in the design and interpretation of fluxomics, metabolomics/lipidomics and computational analyses with the aim of elucidating the molecular basis underlying glucose and lipid homeostasis in humans and animal models.

New Developments

A Shimadzu-Einstein Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center has been established, starting with the development of applications and protocols for the new Shimadzu LC-9030 quadrupole Time of Flight.
Widely targeted Lipidomic Profiling (WTLP) using the Sciex 6500+ QTRAP: Our newly developed widely targeted lipidomic profiling (WTLP) method employs a MRM based fragmentation method for the Sciex 6500+, combined with Avanti SPLASH© and Lipidyzer© standards, to design a WTLP method for detection and quantitation of ~1300 lipid species in 26 lipid classes, including Ceramides (CER), Cholesterol (CHOL), Cholesterol ester (CE), diacylglycerol (DAG), Triacylglycerol (TAG), dihydroceramides (DCER), free fatty acids (FFA), hexosylceramides (HCER), lactosylceramide (LCER), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), lyso-PC (LPC), lyso-PE (LPE), sphingomyelin (SM), phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and phosphatidylserine (PS). In human plasma, 600-700 lipid species have a coefficient of variation (CV) <30%.
Widely targeted small polar metabolite panel (WTSM) using the Sciex 6500+ QTRAP: The Sciex 6500+ QTRAP, with ~550+ annotated metabolites when only the C18 column is used, covers a substantial portion of key metabolite pathways, such as amino acids, amines, acyl carnitines, organic acids (TCA metabolites, glycolytic metabolites including lactate/pyruvate), bile acids and fatty acids. Including HILIC chromatography for tissue samples, raises the detection ability to ~650+. In human plasma, ~200 metabolites are found with a coefficient of variation (CV) <30% and for urine ~300 metabolites are found with CVs <30% for the C18 column method alone.
SIMC is now offering a new Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling Service that includes the following:
- structural modeling
- protein-protein & protein-small molecule interactions
- cheminformatics, quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) and virtual high throughput screening (vHTS)
- assistance available for the inclusion of computational chemistry and molecular modeling in grant applications and manuscript preparation

Module No	Service	Fee per sample	Fee per sample	Fee per sample
Module No	Service	Outside*	Non-member*	DRTC member
Module #1	Tissue/Plasma 180 metabolites: Acylcarnitines, Amines, Amino acids, Sugars, Lipids	$190	$125	$99
Module #2	Choline, Betaine, TMAO and Creatinine	$199	$165	$125
Module # 3	Glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, and TCA cycle	$190	$125	$99
Module # 4	Redox and Bioenergetics	$199	$165	$125
Module # 5	Bile acids	$190	$125	$99
Module # 6	Acyl-CoA analysis	$190	$125	$99
Module # 7	GC/MS Small Metabolite Screen	$250	$165	$125
Module # 8	Short Chain Fatty Acids	$190	$125	$99
Module # 9	Lipogenesis by Deuterated Water	$199	$165	$144
Module # 10	~150 Metabolites by LC/MS (amino acids, amines acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids) and untargeted GC/MS	$250	$200	$175
Module # 11	Hepatic Recycling Glucose Tolerance Test	$150	$99	$72
Module # 12	HGP by U ¹³ C glucose Alzet Mini-pump	Upon Request	Upon Request	Upon Request
Module # 13	Bioinformatics	$199 per hour	$150 per hour	$125 per hour
Module #14	Widely Targeted Small Metabolite (WTSM) profile, ~500+ metabolites	$190	$165	$125
Module #15	Widely Targeted Lipidomic Profile (WTLP), ~1300 species, 26 lipid classes	$190	$165	$125
Sample preparation	Tissue sample powder and weight	$25	$25	$25
* Outside: non-Einstein affiliated organizations
* Non-member: Einstein affiliated organizations
For bulk samples discount (more than 100 samples), please contact Dr. Kurland (Irwin.Kurland@einsteinmed.org)

Diabetes Research Center
Division of Endocrinology
Department of Medicine

Albert Einstein College of Medicine
1300 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461

Phone: 718.430.2908
Fax: 718.430.8557