Development of a Standard Reference Material for Metabolomics Research

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has developed a Standard Reference Material (SRM) to support technology development in metabolomics research. SRM 1950 Metabolites in Human Plasma is intended to have metabolite concentrations that are representative of those found in adult human plasma. The plasma used in the preparation of SRM 1950 was collected from both male and female donors, and donor ethnicity targets were selected based upon the ethnic makeup of the U.S. population. Metabolomics research is diverse in terms of both instrumentation and scientific goals. This SRM was designed to apply broadly to the field, not toward specific applications. Therefore, concentrations of approximately 100 analytes, including amino acids, fatty acids, trace elements, vitamins, hormones, selenoproteins, clinical markers, and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), were determined. Value assignment measurements were performed by NIST and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). SRM 1950 is the first reference material developed specifically for metabolomics research.

Citing Articles

Development of reference materials for dietary supplements-analytical challenges, use, limitations, and future needs.

Wise S, Hosbas Coskun S, Hayes H, Wilson W, Murray J, Lippert J Anal Bioanal Chem. 2025; .

PMID: 40087178 DOI: 10.1007/s00216-025-05787-2.

OzNOxESI: A Novel Mass Spectrometry Ion Chemistry for Elucidating Lipid Double-Bond Regioisomerism in Complex Mixtures.

Smith R, Omar A, Mulani F, Zhang Q Anal Chem. 2025; 97(3):1879-1888.

PMID: 39817428 PMC: 11780577. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c05940.

Comprehensive, Quantitative Analysis of SRM 1950: the NIST Human Plasma Reference Material.

Mandal R, Zheng J, Zhang L, Oler E, LeVatte M, Berjanskii M Anal Chem. 2025; 97(1):667-675.

PMID: 39757418 PMC: 11740895. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c05018.

Reference Materials for Improving Reliability of Multiomics Profiling.

Ren L, Shi L, Zheng Y Phenomics. 2024; 4(5):487-521.

PMID: 39723231 PMC: 11666855. DOI: 10.1007/s43657-023-00153-7.

Rapid QC-MS: Interactive Dashboard for Synchronous Mass Spectrometry Data Acquisition Quality Control.

Sandhu W, Gray I, Lin S, Elias J, DeFelice B Anal Chem. 2024; 96(44):17465-17470.

PMID: 39454023 PMC: 11541893. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c00786.

References

McGaw E, Phinney K, Lowenthal M . Comparison of orthogonal liquid and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry platforms for the determination of amino acid concentrations in human plasma. J Chromatogr A. 2010; 1217(37):5822-31. DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2010.07.025. View

Ubhi B, Cheng K, Dong J, Janowitz T, Jodrell D, Tal-Singer R . Targeted metabolomics identifies perturbations in amino acid metabolism that sub-classify patients with COPD. Mol Biosyst. 2012; 8(12):3125-33. DOI: 10.1039/c2mb25194a. View

Nicholson J, Connelly J, Lindon J, Holmes E . Metabonomics: a platform for studying drug toxicity and gene function. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2002; 1(2):153-61. DOI: 10.1038/nrd728. View

Wajner M, Coelho D, Barschak A, Araujo P, Pires R, Lulhier F . Reduction of large neutral amino acid concentrations in plasma and CSF of patients with maple syrup urine disease during crises. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2000; 23(5):505-12. DOI: 10.1023/a:1005668431926. View

Holmes E, Tsang T, Huang J, Leweke F, Koethe D, Gerth C . Metabolic profiling of CSF: evidence that early intervention may impact on disease progression and outcome in schizophrenia. PLoS Med. 2006; 3(8):e327. PMC: 1551919. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030327. View

Gika H, Macpherson E, Theodoridis G, Wilson I . Evaluation of the repeatability of ultra-performance liquid chromatography-TOF-MS for global metabolic profiling of human urine samples. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2008; 871(2):299-305. DOI: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2008.05.048. View

Ahmed S, Santosh W, Kumar S, Christlet H . Metabolic profiling of Parkinson's disease: evidence of biomarker from gene expression analysis and rapid neural network detection. J Biomed Sci. 2009; 16:63. PMC: 2720938. DOI: 10.1186/1423-0127-16-63. View

Patti G, Yanes O, Siuzdak G . Innovation: Metabolomics: the apogee of the omics trilogy. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2012; 13(4):263-9. PMC: 3682684. DOI: 10.1038/nrm3314. View

Doi K, Yuen P, Eisner C, Hu X, Leelahavanichkul A, Schnermann J . Reduced production of creatinine limits its use as marker of kidney injury in sepsis. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2009; 20(6):1217-21. PMC: 2689892. DOI: 10.1681/ASN.2008060617. View

10.

Reiner J, Phinney K, Keller J . Determination of perfluorinated compounds in human plasma and serum Standard Reference Materials using independent analytical methods. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2011; 401(9):2899-907. DOI: 10.1007/s00216-011-5380-x. View

11.

Pan Z, Raftery D . Comparing and combining NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry in metabolomics. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2006; 387(2):525-7. DOI: 10.1007/s00216-006-0687-8. View

12.

Hollywood K, Brison D, Goodacre R . Metabolomics: current technologies and future trends. Proteomics. 2006; 6(17):4716-23. DOI: 10.1002/pmic.200600106. View

13.

Watkins S, Reifsnyder P, Pan H, German J, Leiter E . Lipid metabolome-wide effects of the PPARgamma agonist rosiglitazone. J Lipid Res. 2002; 43(11):1809-17. DOI: 10.1194/jlr.m200169-jlr200. View

14.

Fiehn O, Garvey W, Newman J, Lok K, Hoppel C, Adams S . Plasma metabolomic profiles reflective of glucose homeostasis in non-diabetic and type 2 diabetic obese African-American women. PLoS One. 2010; 5(12):e15234. PMC: 3000813. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015234. View

15.

Castle A, Fiehn O, Kaddurah-Daouk R, Lindon J . Metabolomics Standards Workshop and the development of international standards for reporting metabolomics experimental results. Brief Bioinform. 2006; 7(2):159-65. DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbl008. View

16.

Begley P, Francis-McIntyre S, Dunn W, Broadhurst D, Halsall A, Tseng A . Development and performance of a gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis for large-scale nontargeted metabolomic studies of human serum. Anal Chem. 2009; 81(16):7038-46. DOI: 10.1021/ac9011599. View

17.

Rudkowska I, Paradis A, Thifault E, Julien P, Tchernof A, Couture P . Transcriptomic and metabolomic signatures of an n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids supplementation in a normolipidemic/normocholesterolemic Caucasian population. J Nutr Biochem. 2012; 24(1):54-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2012.01.016. View

18.

Lappe J, Travers-Gustafson D, Davies K, Recker R, Heaney R . Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007; 85(6):1586-91. DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/85.6.1586. View

19.

Psychogios N, Hau D, Peng J, Guo A, Mandal R, Bouatra S . The human serum metabolome. PLoS One. 2011; 6(2):e16957. PMC: 3040193. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016957. View

20.

Tanaka T, Shnimizu M, Moriwaki H . Cancer chemoprevention by carotenoids. Molecules. 2012; 17(3):3202-42. PMC: 6268471. DOI: 10.3390/molecules17033202. View