使用代谢组学统计分析软件来为人们的饮食健康保驾护航

  近日，来自哈德斯菲尔德大学(University of Huddersfield)的研究人员通过研究指出，食物的化学组成的详细信息或许很容易通过生产者、零售者及消费者来获得，比如获取这些信息后，我们就会知道用于很多中食品中的明胶是否来自于猪肉或牛肉，亦或者是奶酪制作者将能够精确估计何时奶酪会制作好。

  哈德斯菲尔德大学的化学研究中心名为IPOS（Innovative Physical Organic Solutions），其开创性地使用了一种名为MPP的化学统计学软件，MPP（Mass Profiler Professional）是一种通过相关代谢组学的统计分析软件，其可以提取来自原料药和食品中组成分子的相关数据，这种软件目前也在由安捷伦公司推向市场。

  研究人员目前已经利用MPP进行相关的药学研究了，而与此同时安捷伦公司制定了一项挑战，即是否IPOS可以开发出一种技术来有效区分猪肉明胶和牛肉明胶的区别？这将是一项非常重大的研究，比如伊斯兰教的食品制造商就可以避免利用猪肉来作为原料生产相关的清真食品。

  研究者Nicholas Powles博士解释道，MPP软件可以被用于对明胶进行质谱分析，并且在成千上万个分子中寻找到可以指示猪肉或牛肉的特殊分子化学标记物；目前明胶在很多行业中都使用，包括制药行业、化妆品行业、食品加工行业等，随后IPOS的研究也将促进对明胶制造商的认证，比如其所生产的产品是猪肉或牛肉的，那么这将会成为质量保证的一种方式，而目前IPOS也在同主要的明胶制造商进行密切地合作。

  而利用MPP软件或可帮助IPOS来进行多领域的研究探索，比如开发一种新技术可以确定奶酪是否成熟，或者利用一种分子分析方法来判定奶酪制作的阶段，而不是单凭品尝来判断；目前研究者利用安捷伦公司开发的MPP软件已经获得了相当多的数据，并且提高了自身的专业水平，他们希望在后期研究中可以获取更多的信息来有效区分食品的质量，保证人们的身体健康。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）

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The University's chemistry research centre, named IPOS (Innovative Physical Organic Solutions), is pioneering the use of a chemometric software package, called Mass Profiler Professional (MPP), as a means of extracting data about the molecular composition of food and pharmaceutical products. The software is marketed by world-leading scientific equipment supplier Agilent, which has an established major partnership with IPOS.

The Huddersfield team had already used MPP to carry out pharmaceutical research, and then Agilent laid down a challenge -- could IPOS develop a technique for establishing the difference between pork and beef gelatine? It is a significant issue. For example, producers of Halal foods need to avoid any trace of pork in their products.

A PhD student, Sean Ward, has been working on the research as part of a project co-funded by Agilent. He is supervised by Professor Mike Page and Dr Nicholas Powles, of IPOS. Dr Powles explained that the MPP software was being used to carry out mass-spectrometry analysis of gelatines and discovering which, among thousands of molecules, are the unique chemical markers of beef or pork.

Gelatines are employed by many industries, including pharmacy, cosmetics and food production, with desserts and confectionary such as marshmallows being typical uses. Soon, the IPOS research will enable gelatine manufacturers to certify, for example, that their products are pork or beef-free. It will be a form of quality assurance, said Dr Powles, and IPOS has been working closely with a leading gelatine producer.

Developing this use of MPP is enabling IPOS to move into several other areas, such as a technique to determine when cheese has reached maturity, using molecular analysis rather than relying on the judgement of a taster. There are also plans to examine aspects of egg production.

PhD researcher Sean Ward is nearing the end of the first year of his three-year project. Huddersfield-born, he trained and worked as a mechanic before switching to science and studying for a MChem degree at the University of Huddersfield. He has now gained such levels of expertise in the use of Agilent's MPP programme that he is able to train others in the technology.