LC-MS based metabolomics suffers from extended duty cycles and matrix-dependent quantitation. We developed chemical tags with 96 unique masses alleviating the metabolomic workflow bottleneck and allow for absolute quantitation. A metabolic screening analysis of 288 samples became applicable in 2 hours.

Absolute quantitation of known metabolites across samples is hampered by ion suppression, instrument drift and matrix effects. A chemical tag is attached to the analytes of interest using a targeted chemical reaction. These tags contain a varying number or placement of isotopes. These unique tags allow for the simultaneous determination of analyte concentration across multiple samples that have been mixed for a single injection.