Contact & Contribute

How to contribute to the Plasma Benchmark project?

It is possible to contribute to this project if you have data or are planning to analyse pooled plasma from healthy human volunteers. Currently, in order to have a streamlined approach for curating the data, we are only able to accept raw data that has been acquired according to an equivalent LC-MS method as the existing data. However, we are developing a tool that can convert retention times between different LC-MS systems, which will allow users to contribute individual metabolite identifications.

Here are more detailed considerations for contributing to Plasma Benchmark:

• If you are establishing a new LC-MS method and planning to perform an LC-MS metabolomics study on human plasma metabolome, our method may be worth considering. Raw data from pooled samples could be compatible with the database.
• If you already have LC-MS data from pooled plasma analysed with a method that has a different LC gradient than in the Plasma Benchmark study, it may still be possible to add individual metabolites by converting the retention times of your data with the help of commonly identified metabolites across different RT regions. This tool is currently under development. Please contact us for more information.
• The current inclusion criteria for a metabolite to be added into plasma benchmark are listed in the Methods page. Therefore, contributing identified metabolite information may not automatically lead into their inclusion in the database but it will increase their chances. In addition to agreement between different laboratories, there are certain criteria within each dataset that need to be fulfilled: 1) the average abundance (as peak area) must be at least three times that of the area in an extraction blank to ensure that the compound does not originate from background contamination; 2) the signal-to-noise ratio of the peak must be more than 5 to signify a proper detection of the peak; and 3) the relative standard deviation (RSD) between at least 5 injections of the same pooled sample must be less than 30%.

Contact us

Please contact Dr Ville Koistinen (vmkois {at} utu.fi) for development/collaboration ideas. Visit our research group's web page for further information on the metabolomics research at the University of Turku and University of Eastern Finland.