Zamboni Group

Our lab is interested in metabolism: how it's regulated, how it drives cellular decisions or differentiation, and how it sustains pathological states in disease.

Metabolomics at scale

To address these questions across biological systems, we adopt a data-driven approach that heavily relies on mass spectrometry. One of our core expertise is high-throughput metabolomics (and lipidomics), which we routinely employ to characterize in-depth sample cohorts of virtually any size (100'000+) samples. We employ largely automatized workflows that are optimized to combine sensitivity, scalability, and robustness. 

Our methods are under continuous development. We employ instruments of the latest generation and dedicate substantial R&D activity to steadily improve the detail, the scope, the confidence, the sensitivity, or the speed of analyses. For instance, to date we work on non-canonical dissociation techniques (EAD/EID, UVPD) for structural elucidation, the comprehensive annotation of complex samples, or the injection of metabolomics data in knowledge graphs and AI/DL models.

Our lab hosts the PHRT Center for Clinical Metabolomics and Lipidomics - associated to the Swiss Multi-Omics Center (SMOC) - and is involved in multiple National and local consortia on personalized health. 

From data to insights

Profiling metabolite - or lipid - levels is very effective for discovery, but rarely sufficient to derive a conclusive or causal information. Therefore, we develop computational approaches and models to infer regulatory causality from the observable data (e.g. metabolomics and proteomics, stationary and dynamic) or quantify fluxes by 13C stable isotopic tracers. In particular, we strive to develop generally applicable methods that can cope with the complexity of mammalian cells and use prior knowledge to compensate for the cronic lack of data. 

Our toolbox is applied broadly on very different systems (microbes, worms, cell lines, mice, primary human cells and tissues, etc.) through a large network of collaborators in Academia and Industry. 

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