NExTLi
The National Expert Center for Translational Lipidomics
NExTLi is the lipidomics expertise center of the Core Facility Metabolomics at Amsterdam UMC. We provide 4D lipidomics, structurally informed lipid annotation, and tracer-based lipid fluxomics for academic, clinical, and industrial research, supported by expert-guided study design and interpretation. Open to researchers throughout the Netherlands and beyond.
What we offer
- 4D lipidomics: retention time, accurate mass, collision cross section, and MS/MS
- Structural lipid annotation beyond sum composition
- Stable-isotope tracer lipid fluxomics
- Expert-guided design, analysis, and interpretation
- In development: nano-UPLC lipidomics for low-input and microdissected samples
Why NExTLi
Lipids are structurally diverse, and many biologically relevant differences, such as acyl-chain composition, isomers, or pathway-specific modifications, are invisible to conventional profiling. NExTLi combines ion-mobility and high-resolution mass spectrometry with more than two decades of expertise in lipid metabolism and inborn errors of metabolism, so that lipid data can be interpreted mechanistically rather than descriptively.
How it works
- Intake: research question, samples, constraints, desired outputs
- Study design and feasibility, including tracer strategy where relevant
- Standardized sample preparation, measurement, and QC
- Data processing, annotation, and statistical analysis
- Expert interpretation and FAIR data delivery
Three lines of expertise
4D lipidomics
Untargeted and semi-targeted lipidomics on trapped ion mobility (timsMetabo, timsTOF Pro 2) and Orbitrap platforms (Exploris 240, Q Exactive Plus). Collision cross section adds an orthogonal identifier for confident annotation of lipid species.
Lipid fluxomics
Stable-isotope tracers incorporated into head groups, glycerol backbone, or acyl chains, resolved at the isotopologue level. Quantifies lipid synthesis, remodeling, and turnover rather than static abundance.
Low-input & spatial (in development)
Nano-UPLC lipidomics for small cell populations and laser-microdissected tissue regions, linked to the NL-BioImaging laser microdissection facility at Amsterdam UMC. Pilot collaborations welcome.
NExTLi is embedded in the Core Facility Metabolomics of the Laboratory Genetic Metabolic Diseases, Amsterdam UMC, and works with ACDC for FAIR data management and with NL-BioImaging for spatial sample definition.