Alterations in metabolism underpin many chronic diseases including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and age related dementia. While some metabolic pathways are well characterised, their dysregulation resulting from environmental and genetic influences are less well understood, particularly in a setting of chronic disease.

The Metabolomics laboratory uses state of the art tandem mass spectrometry to obtain metabolic profiles from cell and animal models in addition to clinically relevant human samples. This approach is providing an improved understanding of disease mechanisms leading to new biomarkers for improved diagnosis and risk assessment as well as new therapeutic strategies in the areas of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The lipidomic platform developed by Professor Meikle is one of the most advanced nationally or internationally and has made a substantial contribution to many collaborative projects both in Australia and internationally. Professor Meikle has identified lipidomic signatures that can improve upon traditional risk factors for the prediction of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. He is currently working with commercial partners to translate these developments into clinical tests and new therapeutics.

A novel approach in improving lipidomics throughput for population profiling
Lipids are key biological molecules essential to life. Lipidomics is the characterisation and study of the complete lipidome of a biological system (fluid, cell, tissue, organism). In humans, plasma is an easy to obtain bio-fluid where lipids have been demonstrated to be perturbed in various disease settings.

Development and validation of a high throughput clinical lipidomics platform
The Metabolomics Group at the Baker Institute studies the role of lipid metabolism dysregulation in the development and progression of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. To enable this work, we have developed world-class technology which allows us to measure hundreds of different lipids within biological samples through the use of HPLC and tandem mass spectrometry. We are now in the process of translating these research-based protocols for use in a clinical setting, forming the Clinical Lipidomics Platform.

Integration of population level ‘omics' data to target cardiometabolic disease
Cardiometabolic diseases represent the number one cause of death in the world, encompassing cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), chronic kidney disease, and others. Dysregulation of lipid metabolism is intimately linked to the aetiology, progression, and sequelae of this collection of diseases.

Plasma lipidomic profiling in type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease
The Metabolomics Laboratory uses state-of-the-art tandem mass spectrometry to obtain metabolic/lipid profiles from cell and animal models in addition to clinically relevant human samples to develop new approaches to diagnosis, risk assessment and therapy for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Plasmalogen modulation as a therapeutic approach for fatty liver disease
Plasmalogens are glycerophospholipids that are present in numerous mammalian tissues and can act as a natural antioxidant (1). Lipidomic profiling of multiple populations and clinical cohorts has identified decreased levels of plasmalogens to be associated with aging and obesity (2) as well as prediabetes and type 2 diabetes (3). Modulation of plasmalogens can be achieved by oral administration of their metabolic precursors, naturally occurring compounds known as alkylglycerols or by suppressing the activity of plasmalogen catabolising enzyme, TMEM86B.