Untargeted Metabolomics Workshop Report: Quality Control Considerations from Sample Preparation to Data Analysis

The Proteomics Society, India (PSI), hosted the Metabolomics workshop on experimental and data analysis training for untargeted metabolomics in December 2019. The workshop included six tutorial lectures and hands-on data analysis training sessions presented by seven speakers from across the globe. The tutorials and hands-on data analysis sessions focused on workflows for liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based on untargeted metabolomics. We review here three main topics from the workshop, which were uniquely identified as bottlenecks for new researchers: (a) experimental design, (b) quality controls during sample preparation and instrumental analysis, and (c) data quality evaluation using open source tools. Our objective here is to present common challenges faced by novice researchers and present guidelines to address them. We provide resources and good practices for researchers who are at the initial stage of setting up metabolomics workflows in their laboratories.