DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the RTI International (RTI) RCMRC is to develop a self-sustaining regional metabolomics center that offers a comprehensive range of services at reasonable fees and collaborative opportunities designed to maintain and develop state-of-the-art standardized methods, and to promote research, training, and education in metabolomics to increase the number of trained investigators and to expand the use of metabolomics technologies. The RTI RCMRC will work in a consortium to establish nationwide standards that will serve to provide consistency in the metabolomics data collected and stored in a central Data Repository and Coordinating Center (DRCC).The RTI RCMRC will be led by RTI, whose qualified and committed senior scientists will contribute to and oversee five Cores: Administrative Core A; Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics Core B; Gas Chromatography-MS Metabolomics Core C; NMR Spectroscopy Metabolomics Core D; and Promotion and Outreach Core E. RTI is an independent nonprofit, organization, established in 1958 in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina (NC), and is governed by the University of North Carolina System, by Duke University, and by the NC business community. RTI will facilitate the business development activities to achieve the long-range goals of growth and sustainability. The Administrative Core will provide oversight to all center activities and foster interactions among RTI and our collaborators. The RTI RCMRC is supported by our collaboration with the David H. Murdock Research Institute, and with three internationally recognized metabolomics scientists (Drs. Jeremy Nicholson, Elaine Holmes, and Ian Wilson) who will consult on all aspects of this center. The three technology cores will develop and apply metabolomics methods to support collaborative and client-based studies aimed at understanding perturbations in the metabolome that arise as a result of exposure (to chemicals, drugs, environmental stressors), disease onset, progression, resolution, or therapeutic or nutritional intervention. The Promotion and Outreach Core will develop web-based learning tools, increase the number of interns in the metabolomics training program, and disseminate promotional materials.

This application is prepared in response to RFA-RM-11-016: Regional Comprehensive Metabolomics Resource Cores (RCMRC) (U24), and if funded will be one of several RCMRCs designed to increase the national capacity to provide metabolomics profiling and data analysis services to basic, translational, and clinical investigators.