Metabolites are small molecules that play important roles in biological and cellular processes. They act as signalling molecules, serve as cofactors, involved in energy production and storage, and thus responsible for the maintenance, growth, and development of living organisms. 

In this webinar we will first introduce metabolomics, which focuses on the comprehensive analysis of metabolites within biological systems such as cells, biofluids, tissues or organisms from different ecosystems and health and environmental backgrounds. In the second part of the webinar, we will show how metabolite data is represented in MetaboLights, an open-access, cross-species, and cross-technique database for metabolomic experiments and derived information. Studies in MetaboLights contain information across study design, sample origin, collection, processing, spectral data measurement, data processing, and metabolite identification. The re-use of data from MetaboLights can take various forms – from identified metabolites towards interpretation, with pathways / reactions / literature, to a matrix for statistical modelling or even re-processing of raw data. In the final part of the webinar, we will introduce MetaboLights’ partner database, ChEBI, that focuses on the nomenclature, structure and biological properties of ‘small molecules’.