The extraction of meaningful biological knowledge from high-throughput mass spectrometry data relies on limiting false discoveries to a manageable amount. For targeted approaches in metabolomics a main challenge is the detection of false positive metabolic features in the low signal-to-noise ranges of data-independent acquisition results and their filtering. Another factor is that the creation of assay libraries for data-independent acquisition analysis and the processing of extracted ion chromatograms have not been automated in metabolomics. Here we present a fully automated open-source workflow for high-throughput metabolomics that combines data-dependent and data-independent acquisition for library generation, analysis, and statistical validation, with rigorous control of the false-discovery rate while matching manual analysis regarding quantification accuracy. Using an experimentally specific data-dependent acquisition library based on reference substances allows for accurate identification of compounds and markers from data-independent acquisition data in low concentrations, facilitating biomarker quantification.
GrantsUniversity of Toronto Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen natural sciences and engineering research council of canada Canadian Institutes of Health Research Government of Canada NFRF