Metabolomics 2022 workshop report: state of QA/QC best practices in LC-MS-based untargeted metabolomics, informed through mQACC community engagement initiatives

Abstract

Introduction: The Metabolomics Quality Assurance and Quality Control Consortium (mQACC) organized a workshop during the Metabolomics 2022 conference.

Objectives: The goal of the workshop was to disseminate recent findings from mQACC community-engagement efforts and to solicit feedback about a living guidance document of QA/QC best practices for untargeted LC-MS metabolomics.

Methods: Four QC-related topics were presented.

Results: During the discussion, participants expressed the need for detailed guidance on a broad range of QA/QC-related topics accompanied by use-cases.

Conclusions: Ongoing efforts will continue to identify, catalog, harmonize, and disseminate QA/QC best practices, including outreach activities, to establish and continually update QA/QC guidelines.

Keywords: Analytical batch; Blanks; Internal standards; Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS); Metabolomics; Quality control (QC) samples; System suitability testing (SST).