The Metabolomics laboratory at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute provides a leading translational environment for studying lipid metabolism in cardiometabolic disease. The laboratory has developed Australia’s largest high throughput lipidomics platform using tandem mass spectrometry and has applied this capability to large clinical and population studies to identify lipidomic biomarker profiles associated with disease risk, therapeutic response, and metabolic health. Its research program focuses on understanding how environmental and genetic influences dysregulate lipid metabolism in chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and age-related dementia, with the broader aim of translating lipidomic discoveries into diagnostic tests, risk assessment tools, disease monitoring approaches, and therapeutic interventions
Project summary
This project will develop a mass spectrometry-based assay to assess monocyte reactivity ex vivo. Circulating monocytes will be isolated from clinical samples and profiled at baseline and after an ex vivo inflammatory and high-glucose challenge. Lipidomics will be used as the primary readout to measure changes in lipid species linked to inflammation, membrane remodelling, and cellular metabolism, with metabolomics used where appropriate to support pathway interpretation.
By comparing pre- and post-stimulation molecular profiles, the project will identify monocyte response signatures that may reflect metabolic memory and immune dysfunction. These data will support future development of functional blood-based biomarkers for disease complication risk.
