SpectralWorks’ AnalyzerPro workshop in the Systems Biology unit at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia

BIO378 Systems Biology is a new third-year unit offered to science students at Murdoch university. In the unit, the students cover topics such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Key to understanding the metabolomics component of the unit, students engage in a workshop where they have access to SpectralWorks’ AnalyzerPro chromatographic deconvolution and data processing software.

With a subset of samples from a larger metabolomics study, students explore the functionality of AnalyzerPro such as peak picking, deconvolution and post-processing multivariate and univariate statistical analysis.

Drs Joel Gummer, Stacey Reinke and Garth Maker, who deliver the metabolomics component of the unit, said “Metabolomics is a complex area of study and the right tools are needed to deliver the content to students who are learning about metabolomics for the first time. Since AnaylzerPro is vendor neutral, we were able to do this using our own data. A visual, user friendly platform, the AnalyzerPro processing pipeline delivers a simple workflow for a complex biological data set”.

“The inaugural workshop in 2016 was a great success, with over 50 students learning the basics of AnalyzerPro, processing a real data set and completing an assessment activity, all in less than two hours” said Dr Maker.

The team at SpectralWorks and academics from Murdoch University look forward to continuing this partnership to ensure that students have exposure to the latest data processing workflows in metabolomics and systems biology.

Systems biology workshop at Murdoch University