The Metabolomics Core Facility (MCF) was created on December 1st, 2020 and is part of the Center for Technological Resources and Research (C2RT) and the Microbiology Department.
The main objective of the platform is to provide researchers with metabolomic strategies to help them answer their biological questions. The metabolomic team will support researchers from the definition of experimental design to the interpretation of the results. They benefit from state-of-the-art instrumentation and computational methods. It includes the latest generation of high speed, high-resolution mass spectrometers as well as bioinformatics and statistical tools to analyze the complex high-dimensional data generated.
Our activities
Large-scale metabolomic and lipidomic analyses can provide with important information about many cellular processes and their disturbances:
- comparison of metabolomes between several biological systems allows genotypes and phenotypes to be linked.
- comparison of metabolomes within the same group of biological systems under different conditions enables to elucidate the influence of the environment on the expressed phenotype.
One of the main challenges of these analyses is to be able to measure metabolites with extremely diverse physico-chemical properties whilst we have not an exhaustive knowledge of all existing metabolites yet. One of the specificities of the platform is to elucidate on a large scale these unknown compounds for a fine understanding of cellular physiological mechanisms.
The main goal of the platform is to help researchers by conducting metabolomic experiments and analyses. Our activity can be divided into 3 main project types:
- Help researchers answer their biological questions: projects submitted by Pasteur or external teams
- Internal developments: MCF-specific projects to acquire new approaches in metabolomics and to anticipate the future needs of the Institut Pasteur
- Transversal technological research with other internal or external teams (platforms, research units)
We are also eager to give advice and help researchers elaborate their metabolomic projects.
Do not hesitate to contact us at metabolomics@pasteur.fr if you have any question.
How to work with us
Metabolomic analyses can be long processes, and their objectives must be well defined prior to any work at the bench. The experimental design is particularly critical to make sure the results obtained are robust enough and unbiased with regards to your biological question. Sample preparation, data acquisition and analysis method must be carefully planned in advance.
In this context, feel free to email us metabolomics@pasteur.fr and we will be happy to discuss about your needs.
Note that an online submission form is being developed in collaboration with the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Hub and will be available soon.
Practical information
We are part of the C2RT (Center for Technological Resources and Research), a center encompassing the Technology and Service units (UTechS) and the technological core facilities of the campus. As such, we follow the common guidelines and good practices (click here for french version) regarding costs, communication, acknowledgments and authorship.
Invoicing
Users agree to pay the service fees related to the facility activities. The billing policy of the platform has been built following the C2RT recommendations and with the help of the financial services. A quote will be edited after the first discussions and before any analyses at the bench.
Certification
We plan to obtain the Quality Management System norm ISO-9001:2015 early 2023.
Steering committee
David Touboul, CNRS, Serge Rudaz, Université de Genève, Timothy Wai, Institut Pasteur, Anna Kehres, Institut Pasteur, Gérard Eberl, Institut Pasteur, Marie-Agnès Dillies, Institut Pasteur
