Metabolomics is an important component of life science multi-omics. Metabolomics investigates small molecules — lipids and hydrophilic compounds — from animal, plant, and microbial sources at the systems level. Targeted and untargeted metabolomics reveal cellular responses to illnesses, nutrition, environmental changes, gene function, medication metabolism, and interactions with other organisms. Mass spectrometry (MS) and NMR-based services from Biocenter Finland Metabolomics Technology Platform encompass all sectors of life science from medicine to plant and environmental science, serving a wide national and international customer base with proven performance. The five nodes hosted by UH/HiLIFE, UEF, and UTU provide complementing analytical services with skilled staff and outstanding publication records. The platform has a clear strategy for its line up and continuously improves the resolution of the analyses in terms of molecular structure, time (flux analyses) and space (spatial imaging).
Contact details
Nodes
Services
Recent user publications

Training and Education

Contact details

Platform Chair

Teemu Teeri
teemu.teeri@helsinki.fi

Platform Chair 2025-2028

Anni Nieminen
anni.nieminen@helsinki.fi

Nodes

Node/Host UniversityNode PI
Viikki Metabolomics Unit (ViMU) UH
Teemu Teeri, UH 2021-2024
(Nina Sipari, UH 2025-2028)
teemu.teeri@helsinki.fi
nina.sipari@helsinki.fi
FIMM Metabolomics (FIMM-META) UH
Anni Nieminen, UH
anni.nieminen@helsinki.fi
Biocenter Kuopio Metabolomics Center (BCK) UEF
Seppo Auriola, UEF 2021-2024
(Marko Lehtonen, UEF, platform vice-chair 2025-2026)
seppo.auriola@uef.fi
marko.lehtonen@uef.fi
Helsinki University Lipidomics Unit (HiLIPID) UH
Reijo Käkelä, UH
reijo.kakela@helsinki.fi
Turku Metabolomics Centre (TMC) UTU
Matej Orešič, UTU
(Alex Dickens, UTU, platform vice-chair 2027-2028)
matej.oresic@utu.fi
alex.dickens@utu.fi

UEF: University of Eastern Finland; UH: University of Helsinki; UO: University of Oulu; UTU: University of Turku.

Services

Researchers, universities, healthcare facilities, institutes and businesses from different fields can easily access the nodes from their webpages (where contact information is available). Each of the platform nodes has extensive knowledge and experience in a specific area of the life sciences. Please get in touch with us if you would like further details about the current and future goals of each node.

Platform service workflow

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The Metabolomics Platform offers a range of complementary analytical services.

Recent user publications

Xing L, Gkini V, Nieminen AI, Zhou HC, Aquilino M, Naumann R, Reppe K, Tanaka K, Carmeliet P, Heikinheimo O, Pääbo S, Huttner WB, Namba T. Functional synergy of a human-specific and an ape-specific metabolic regulator in human neocortex development. Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 24;15(1):3468. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47437-8.

Koskivuori J, Voutilainen R, Storvik M, Häkkinen MR, Uusitalo L, Keski-Nisula L, Backman K, Auriola S, Lehtonen M. Comparative steroid profiling of newborn hair and umbilical cord serum highlights the role of fetal adrenals, placenta, and pregnancy outcomes in fetal steroid metabolism. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2023 Sep;232:106357. doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2023.106357
Liu L, Pan D, Chen S, Martikainen MV, Kårlund A, Ke J, Pulkkinen H, Ruhanen H, Roponen M, Käkelä R, Xu W, Wang J, Lehto VP. Systematic design of cell membrane coating to improve tumor targeting of nanoparticles. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 19;13(1):6181. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33889-3
Lamichhane S, Sen P, Dickens AM, Alves MA, Härkönen T, Honkanen J, Vatanen T,Xavier RJ, Hyötyläinen T, Knip M, Orešič M. Dysregulation of secondary bile acidmetabolism precedes islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes. Cell Rep Med. 2022 Oct 18;3(10):100762. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100762. Epub 2022 Oct 3. PMID:36195095; PMCID: PMC9589006.

Purhonen, J. P., Banerjee, R., Wanne, V., Sipari, N., Morgelin, M., Fellman, V. & Kallijärvi J. Mitochondrial complex III deficiency drives c-MYC overexpression and illicit cell cycle entry leading to senescence and segmental progeria. Nat Commun 14, 2356 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38027-1.

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Training and Education

Every node in the platform is an active participant in mass spectrometry and metabolomics education on a global scale, across a range of life science disciplines. Additionally, postdocs, professors, technicians, and students pursuing BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees can take advantage of our five nodes' extensive practical training in mass spectrometry and metabolomics.

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