A new web tool for functional analysis in metabolomics

Since the end of the 20th century, molecular biology techniques have evolved such that the volume of data produced can no longer be analysed manually. Computer tools have become indispensable in biology.

A study recently published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research introduces a new version of MBROLE, an online tool for analysing data obtained by metabolomics studies (metabolomics is the branch of biology that studies the set of all chemical metabolites –-small chemical molecules— in an organism). The tool was developed by scientists at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología of the CSIC (CNB-CSIC).

With this program, the user enters a list of hundreds of metabolites previously obtained using molecular biology techniques, which in raw form has no meaning, and MBROLE 2.0 interprets it. "MBROLE 2.0 returns information about the biological pathways that are involved, possible interactions of chemical compounds (metabolites or drugs) with proteins, associated diseases, and much more," explains Mónica Chagoyen, a CNB-CSIC researcher and one of the developers of the tool.

es available online. The new version, MBROLE 2.0, consults 10 new databases not included in MBROLE 1.0, and can provide the user with information on metabolite interactions with proteins, which greatly increases the possibilities of the tool. It also has a new, more intuitive interface, and automatically recognises the identifiers used by different databases for the same compound, which greatly facilitates its use.

The previous version of MBROLE, produced in 2010, was the first web tool developed for the analysis of functional enrichment in metabolomics that could be applied to various organisms. "The other one available at the time, published a few months before ours, only recognised data for human metabolites," explains Chagoyen.

Six years later, there are still very few similar tools. "Metabolomics is not yet as widespread as genomics or proteomics. We nonetheless receive many visits to our server from all over the world, especially from the United States and China. We think this new version can greatly facilitate the work of these researchers," says the scientist.