Research summary
Magazines often advertise tips we can use to help speed up our metabolisms. But relatively little is known about metabolites-the small molecules, such as lipids, carbohydrates, steroids and amino acids, that are produced by a living organism’s metabolism. It is estimated that a single drop of human blood could contain as many as one million metabolites, yet fewer than 10 per cent of them have a known function.
Dr. Rafael Montenegro Burke, Canada Research Chair in Functional Metabolomics and Lipidomics, is changing the way we catalogue metabolites and determining how they regulate fundamental biological processes and drive disease. Specifically, he and his research team are developing innovative approaches to systematically map specific metabolite classes, determine their function and identify the genes involved in their biosynthesis. Ultimately, their findings will pave the way for alternative disease treatments for patients that do not respond to currently available drugs.