In a kickoff meeting, we assess the feasibility of your project and decide together if mass-spectrometry is the best technology for answering your research question(s). In the rare case that gets more project applications than we can handle, we give priority to CeMM internal projects.
Please provide any relevant information about your project and enter it into iLAB. The more detailed your instructions are, the better we can help you. Please also upload a table which contains at least the following information:
Text written on samples
Sample type
Sample description, e.g. technical or biological replicate, condition, …
Chemical composition of buffer/solvent/… where proteins are dissolved. In the case samples are lyophilized, please indicate them and let us know if other chemical components are expected. This reduced the risk of low-quality samples or even sample losses.
Expected protein/peptide concentration or sample amount in the sample and how it was assessed.
Preferred injection order (of not provided, we will randomize your samples)
Risk information (according to §40 ASchG). Please indicate if samples have been inactivated and how.
Please provide information about the ethics approval if animal experiments are involved or human sample types are shipped.
Before sending or bringing any samples, please get in touch with Juan Sanchez: JSanchez[at]cemm.oeaw.ac.at. Please store and ship your samples under appropriate conditions (see below). We highly recommend shipping samples on Mondays or Tuesdays to ensure delivery during the week. Please always provide us with a tracking number or some reference so that we can monitor the status of your delivery. Once your samples have arrived at the MDP, we will notify you.
Our shipment address is:
CeMM Molecular Discovery Platform – Metabolomics
Juan Sanchez
Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3, Floor 4, Room 04.G242
1090 Vienna, Austria
You will receive a mail once your samples have been measured and analyzed. We provide you:
Raw files
If you requested a data analysis, we are sending you a data analysis report including raw processed data, statistical analysis, and interactive plots.
Materials and methods
Acknowledgement sentence
After the project handover, we are continuously supporting you if questions arise.
Many metabolites are very instable, and great care must be taken to store and ship metabolomics samples. Always snap freeze your samples immediately after collection in liquid nitrogen and store them at -80°C until shipment/delivery. Please contact Miriam Abele or Juan Sanchez for guidance on feces and tissue sample delivery. Any freeze-thaw cycles must be avoided. Please add sufficient dry ice to your package even if an unexpected delay is happening. Please contact us before sending us the samples to ensure that we are aware of a sample delivery.
Freeze-thaw cycles, exposure to light and/or temperature: Some metabolites are unstable. Immediately store your samples on ice or directly snap-freeze them and store them at -80°C until further processing.
PEG (MWCO filters, etc): Filters are essential in some procedures but always pose the risk for polyethylene glycol contamination. If your protocol requires (sterile) filtering, please contact us.
Sending samples in several batches. For better reproducibility, metabolomics experiments should be performed in one batch. If several batches are required, additional quality controls and normalization samples must be included.
Sufficient sample amount. As a rule of thumb:
Serum: > 50 µL
Plasma: > 50 µL
Tissue: > 30 mg
Cells: > 1,000,000 cells
Feces: > 30 mg dry weight
Bile: > 10 µl
The amount depends on the metabolite of interest. Metabolites in a low concentration might require additional concentration steps, and higher input amounts are required. These types of questions are discussed in the kickoff meeting to ensure the highest possible quality of the data.
If you have less sample amount, please contact Miriam Abele. There might be possibilities to perform a metabolomics experiment.
Samples are not stored on a regular basis. Please discuss this topic in the kickoff meeting if you want to take your samples back or if they should be re-analyzed.
We transfer all data (raw files, method text, results, report) to the collaborator/customer, and we DO NOT store the data any longer.
We perform:
Systems performance checks before every project
NIST samples for system performance checks within and across batches
PooledQC samples for reproducibility checks within a project and across batches
Blanks and double blanks for carry-over reduction and determination.
