Makoto Arita, Ph.D.

Team leader, Laboratory for Metabolomics, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS), Yokohama, Japan

Professor, Division of physiological Chemistry and Metabolism, Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy, Tokyo, Japan

Lipids are recognized as extremely diversified molecules, and their difference in quality is considered to be important in human health and disease. Precise determination of each molecular species of lipids, namely LipoQuality (quality of lipids), becomes a prerequisite to understand their biological roles. However, comprehensive analytical system to determine each molecular species of lipids is still developing, and biological significance of the diversity of lipids is not fully understood.

Recent advances of mass spectrometry (MS) enabled the detailed study of metabolism, distribution and dynamics of individual class of lipids. To date, we’ve developed targeted lipidomics system using LC-tripleQ MS to monitor fatty acid metabolites comprehensively, and uncovered the roles of omega-3 fatty acid metabolism in controlling inflammation and related diseases. Now we develop an advanced untargeted lipidomics platform by using LC-QTOF MS to comprehensively monitor and distinguish different quality of lipids in non-biased fashion. Using these LC-MS/MS-based lipidomics, and genetically modified animals or nutritional control to manipulate fatty acid balance in the body, we try to understand how different quality of lipids and their unique metabolites function in vivo that could explain the biological significance of diverse lipid species in living systems. I’ll talk about recent advances and future perspective in the field of LipoQuality.

Ref) JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “LipoQuality”

    (https://sites.google.com/site/lipoqualityjpn/homeE)