Advanced Mass Spectrometry in Vegetable, Animal, and Human Qualitative and Quantitative Metabolomics II

Dear Colleagues,

Metabolomics is one of the newest omics technologies concerned with the identification and quantification of small molecules in a high-throughput manner. This research field has experienced exponential growth in the last decade, driven by a plethora of applications in many areas of life sciences.

Mass spectrometry is one of the most important analytical avenues for the analysis of metabolic species in complex biological matrices. The dominant role of MS-based methods in qualitative and quantitative metabolomics is fully justified by their higher sensitivity and fast data acquisition. Today, mass spectrometry is largely used to develop selective, simple, fast, and robust experimental methods to diagnose and manage numerous and widespread human diseases, in combination with nuclear magnetic resonance and chromatography, software, and databases. Consequently, mass spectrometry offers also an avenue to a range of global and targeted quantitative approaches that are now widespread and routine to provide reliable data. Powerful isotope labelling and tracing methods have become very popular.

The present Special Issue presents an overview of the most recent innovations, acquisitions, original applications, and findings of the desorption/ionization techniques Matrix-Assisted and Matrix-Free Laser Desorption/Ionization, Direct Infusion, Ambient Ionization, and Imaging Mass Spectrometry, which are challenging techniques used to directly obtain metabolite profiling or fingerprinting of vegetable, animal, and human matrices. Studies that aim to discover and identify new and unknown metabolite biomarkers that play important roles in unexplored metabolic pathways, as well as their validation, will be welcome. New MS-based methods for metabolomics analysis in foods analysis and control will constitute another part of the Special Issue; furthermore, researchers interested in the use of advanced and sophisticated MS techniques to resolve very specific problems in forensic sciences arising from post-mortem samples shall find this volume a valuable editorial tool for the publication of their results.

Prof. Dr. Carlo Siciliano
Prof. Dr. Anna Napoli
Guest Editors

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• mass spectrometry
• Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI)
• qualitative and quantitative metabolomics
• profiling and fingerprinting of complex natural matrices
• vegetable matrices
• animal matrices
• human matrices
• food analysis and control
• post-mortem forensic analysis