The HUSERMET project aims were to:

• Develop methods that allow the measurement of metabolites present in human serum
• Characterise the human serum metabolome. This involved:
• The recruitment of several thousand volunteers to provide serum samples for analysis
• Analysis of these samples across different analytical platforms to generate complementary profiles of the metabolome
• Combining data from all experiments to produce a human metabolome reference "map" of the normal population against which data from other studies can be compared
• Study changes in metabolite levels as the result of the progression and treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and ovarian cancer
• Make all metabolite data available for others to use in medical research and drug discovery
• Make the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) available for use by other researchers. These can be accessed here:
• Data validation
• Sample transfer and receipt
• Sample picking
• Consumables QA
• GC-MS analysis
• LC-MS analysis
• FT-IR analysis

If you use any of these SOPs, please cite our Nature Protocols publication. In addition, if you use the GC-MS or LC-MS SOP, please cite the relevant Analytical Chemistry publication: GC-MS or LC-MS.

Volunteers were recruited with the assistance of:

• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
• Stockport Primary Care Trust
• The European Male Ageing Study (EMAS) at the University of Manchester
• Memory Clinics throughout the North West
• Christie Hospital

This was a unique four year collaboration between the University of Manchester, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.

HUSERMET was funded through the "Link Scheme in Applied Genomics" initiative by the BBSRC, MRC and the DTI.