I’ve never quite been able to get my head around the difference between metabolomics and metabonomics, despite having worked on a chemical biology journal for many years. Both examine the ‘chemical fingerprints’ of bodily tissue, either under normal conditions or in response to some kind of molecular prod. Whatever the correct terminology, Imperial College have long been leaders at such metabolic profiling. Now, a new piece of kit and laboratory offer a very practical application of the discipline.

Imperial’s Department of Surgery and Cancer has invested in a high-resolution solid-state NMR spectrometer at their St Mary’s Hospital site (the first time such a tool has been installed in a hospital setting). The spectrometer will allow surgeons to get near-real-time information about the metabolites in surgical samples. Britain’s best-known surgeon, Lord Darzi, explains the benefits:

People respond differently to the physical trauma of surgery, but currently the tools we have to measure how they respond are very limited. Blood tests are slow and they can only measure one chemical component at a time; the doctor simply looks at whether a particular measure has gone up or down. Using NMR, we can simultaneously measure all of the chemicals that the body is producing, and analyse those data to give the surgeon real-time information about the patient’s condition which will help him make decisions.

The new laboratory will investigate other ways that metabonomics can help the surgeon. One potential approach would be an ‘intelligent knife’, which sniffs out compounds using mass spectrometry and tells the surgeon whether he/she is cutting through healthy or cancerous tissue.

Much more on these exciting developments over at Imperial’s web site.