METLIN: A Technology Platform for Identifying Knowns and Unknowns

Guijas, C.; Montenegro-Burke, J.R.; Domingo-Almenara, X.; et al.

METLIN is a comprehensive metabolite database designed for metabolomic MS/MS analysis. This repository was developed initially in 2003 to help researchers identify known metabolites in their untargeted MS research. Through the use of MS/MS data (empirical and in silico generation aided by ¹³C-labeled yeast extract) and advanced informatic tools (e.g., “Neutral Loss and Fragment Similarity Search”), METLIN can now effectively characterize unknowns as well. The advancements are described and exemplified herein. Taken together, this should help facilitate new application opportunities in systems biology studies.