LIPID MAPS (Lipid Metabolites and Pathways Strategy) is a web portal designed to be a gateway to

Lipidomics Lipidomics is the large-scale study of pathways and networks of cellular lipids in biological systems The word "lipidome" is used to describe the complete lipid profile within a cell, tissue, organism, or ecosystem and is a subset of the "metabolo ...

resources. The resource has spearheaded a classification of biological

lipid Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...

s, dividing them into eight general categories. LIPID MAPS provides standardised methodologies for mass spectrometry analysis of lipids, e.g. LIPID MAPS has been cited as evidence of a growing appreciation of the study of lipid metabolism and the rapid development and standardisation of the lipidomics field Key LIPID MAPS resources include: * LIPID MAPS Structure Database (LMSD) - a database of structures and annotations of biologically relevant lipids, containing over 46000 different lipids. The paper describing this resource has, according to

PubMed PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintain the ...

, been cited more than 200 times. * LIPID MAPS In-Silico Structure Database (LMISSD) - a database of computationally predicted lipids generated by expansion of headgroups for commonly occurring lipid classes * LIPID MAPS Gene/Proteome Database (LMPD) - a database of genes and gene products which are involved in lipid metabolism Tools available from LIPID MAPS enable scientists to identify likely lipids in their samples from

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

data, a common method to analyse lipids in biological specimens. In particular, LipidFinder enables analysis of MS data. Tutorials and educational material on lipids are also available at the site. In January 2020, LIPID MAPS became an

ELIXIR ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is an initiative that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organised network. Its goal is to bring t ...

service.

History

LIPID MAPS was founded in 2003 with

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

funding. Since 2016, it has been a joint project between the

University of Cardiff , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

led by Prof Valerie O'Donnell, the

Babraham Institute The Babraham Institute is a life sciences research institution and a partner organisation of the University of Cambridge. The Babraham Institute is based on the Babraham Research Campus, partly occupying a former manor house, but also labora ...

under

Michael Wakelam Michael John Owen Wakelam (15 July 1955 – 31 March 2020) was a British molecular biologist, director of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, England. Biography Wakelam received a BSc in medical biochemistry (1977) and a PhD in biochemistry ...

, and

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

scientists Shankar Subramaniam and Ed Dennis funded by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

. Wakelam's obituary describes LIPID MAPS as unifying the field of lipidomics. LIPID MAPS is sponsored by Avanti Polar lipids and Cayman Chemicals

References

{{reflist Biological databases Lipids