Metabolic biomarkers will be quantified from serum/plasma/urine/samples using high-throughput proton NMR metabolomics. The metabolic biomarker assay is unique and innovative by enabling the quantification of 250 metabolites from a small volume of plasma. Nightingale’s proprietary metabolic biomarker profiling assay provides an ideal methodology for molecular epidemiology, health tracking, and translation of research findings to clinical use. Nightingale’s blood analysis platform includes both clinically established and emerging biomarkers shown to be medically relevant in large epidemiological studies, and the metabolic profile provides a comprehensive molecular readout of the health state of the subject. More specifically, the analysis provides simultaneous quantification of routine lipids, lipoprotein subclass profiling with lipid concentrations within 14 subclasses, fatty acid composition, inflammation marker GlycA, and various low-molecular metabolites including amino acids, ketone bodies, and gluconeogenesis-related metabolites in molar concentration units. Over 250 publications to date showcase the stability of the technology and the breadth of scientific applications. Details of the experimentation and applications of the NMR metabolomics platform have been described previously (Soininen et al, Circ Cardiovasc Genet 2015; 8: 192, Würtz et al, Am J Epidemiol 2017;186:1084–1096).

Nightingale’s platform is the first biomarker omics technology to profile the entire UK biobank collection of 500,000 blood samples. The rich UK Biobank database with observational study design and a single time-point can be utilized to generate preliminary findings and hypotheses to be tested in your own study. Later, it may serve as a source for replication of findings from your study, with easy access to individual person data provided by the UK Biobank.