Best Practices Working Group

Chairs: Jonathan Mosley, Environmental Protection Agency and Georgios Theodoridis, Aristotle University

Ongoing activities:
The Best Practices Working Group was established in March 2019 to identify, catalog, harmonize and disseminate QA/QC best practices for untargeted metabolomics. As a starting point for defining best practices for untargeted metabolomics, we are actively identifying areas of common agreement amongst metabolomics practitioners. The first interaction took place at a Metabolomics Association of North America (MANA) 2019 workshop with live polling and facilitated discussion. We have since adapted this approach for the virtual world and are planning a series of interactive forums to accomplish our goals. Furthermore, we are developing a literature survey to extend the catalog of QA/QC best practices to include current practices across the reported literature. Harmonization and dissemination of best practices will be accomplished through close collaboration with the Reporting Standards Working Group.

Anticipated deliverables:

• A series of interactive workshops with live polling and facilitated discussions covering the breadth of QA/QC best practice topic areas.

• A literature survey is being developed to catalog QA/QC reported practices regarding the use of pooled QC samples for untargeted metabolomics.

• A manuscript will follow that identifies areas of common agreement among QA/QC best practices for the use of pooled QC samples (for LC-MS platforms) and highlights areas where harmonization is needed.