Measuring the rate of lipid biosynthesis has traditionally been done using radio-isotope labeling. While this technology is very sensitive, it is inherently dangerous due to the radioactivity and fairly non specific. Stable-isotope labeling provides an alternative approach which is much more specific and benign but has low sensitivity due to a low signal to noise ratio.
We are developing technology that uses stable isotope labeling for lipid flux analysis but has sensitivity comparable to radio-isotope labeling. This is enabled by ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry where we can distinguish a tracer isotope from natural abundance 13C, which substantially improves sensitivity and specificity relative to traditional techniques.
We are currently applying this technology to studying mouse and cell culture models of metabolic disease and will transition to human studies.