FoodPhyt Training “Nutrimetabolomics & Data Analysis for Early Career Scientists

FoodPhyt Training “NUTRIMETABOLOMICS & DATA ANALYSIS for EARLY CAREER SCIENTISTS: Everything you need for a good Mass Spectrometry (MS) - based nutrimetabolomics experiment!” in Barcelona, Spain.

The first summer school “NUTRIMETABOLOMICS & DATA ANALYSIS for EARLY CAREER SCIENTISTS: Everything you need for a good MS-based nutrimetabolomics experiment!” was organized by the Early Carreer Scientists (ECS) representatives of the HDHL project FOODPHYT (Food phytochemicals matter for cardiometabolic health) on the 13th-15th October 2022 at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain. This event aimed to give young researchers the opportunity to learn about how to plan and conduct a nutrimetabolomics experiment, and how to perform statistical analysis with the generated data. For this, two international speakers, Dr. Marynka Ulaszewska (Product Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Italy) and Dr. Carl Brunius (Associate professor in Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) were invited. Dr. Marynka Ulaszewska gave recommendations about study design, quality control, extraction techniques, data processing, compounds identification, and annotation for a good MS-based nutrimetabolomics experiment. Prof. Carl Brunius taught the young researchers about statistical analysis using machine learning, making causal assumptions and generalized linear models that can be used for analysis of nutrimetabolomics data. At the end of the event, a working group discussion took place, where researchers exchanged ideas on a question in the field of nutrimetabolomics (biomarkers of intake, metabotyping, personalized nutrition, and nutritional epidemiology). The working group discussion was designed to enable the application of the knowledge taught in the lectures beforehand in a peer-learning process.

Around 40 researchers working in 14 institutions from Spain, Germany, United Kingdom and France attended the Summer School. More than half of the attendees were PhD students (n=21) or postdoctoral researchers (n=9). The majority of attendees were members of the HDHL FoodPhyt project (n=23), but also some members of the HDHL Carb-Q-4-Health project, and 12 external participants attended the summer school.

During the summer school, young researchers also had the possibility to visit two laboratories in the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, where the event took place. The first one was the laboratory of Prof. Ramon Estruch’s research group, who hosted the summer school. The second, was the clinic laboratory (CORE) of the Hospital Clinic. During breaks and social events young researchers had the opportunity to network, exchange experiences and create contacts that will promote their scientific careers. Everyone benefitted from the multidisciplinary exchange during the FoodPhyt Summer School. 

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