Introduction

The metabolomics quality assurance and quality control consortium (mQACC) evolved from the recognized need for a community-wide consensus on improving and systematizing quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) practices for untargeted metabolomics.

Objectives

In this work, we sought to identify and share the common and divergent QA and QC practices amongst mQACC members and collaborators who use liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) in untargeted metabolomics.

Methods

All authors voluntarily participated in this collaborative research project by providing the details of and insights into the QA and QC practices used in their laboratories. This sharing was enabled via a six-page questionnaire composed of over 120 questions and comment fields which was developed as part of this work and has proved the basis for ongoing mQACC outreach.

Results

For QA, many laboratories reported documenting maintenance, calibration and tuning (82%); having established data storage and archival processes (71%); depositing data in public repositories (55%); having standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place for all laboratory processes (68%) and training staff on laboratory processes (55%). For QC, universal practices included using system suitability procedures (100%) and using a robust system of identification (Metabolomics Standards Initiative level 1 identification standards) for at least some of the detected compounds. Most laboratories used QC samples (>86%); used internal standards (91%); used a designated analytical acquisition template with randomized experimental samples (91%); and manually reviewed peak integration following data acquisition (86%). A minority of laboratories included technical replicates of experimental samples in their workflows (36%).

Conclusions

Although the 23 contributors were researchers with diverse and international backgrounds from academia, industry and government, they are not necessarily representative of the worldwide pool of practitioners due to the recruitment method for participants and its voluntary nature. However, both questionnaire and the findings presented here have already informed and led other data gathering efforts by mQACC at conferences and other outreach activities and will continue to evolve in order to guide discussions for recommendations of best practices within the community and to establish internationally agreed upon reporting standards. We very much welcome further feedback from readers of this article.

中文翻译：

---

基于 LC-MS 的非目标代谢组学从业者的质量保证 (QA) 和质量控制 (QC) 实践的传播和分析

介绍

代谢组学质量保证和质量控制联盟 (mQACC) 源于对非目标代谢组学质量保证 (QA) 和质量控制 (QC) 实践的改进和系统化的全社区共识的认识需求。

目标

在这项工作中，我们试图确定并分享在非靶向代谢组学中使用液相色谱-质谱 (LC-MS) 的 mQACC 成员和合作者之间常见和不同的 QA 和 QC 实践。

方法

所有作者都自愿参与该合作研究项目，提供其实验室中使用的 QA 和 QC 实践的详细信息和见解。这种共享是通过一份由 120 多个问题和评论字段组成的六页调查问卷实现的，该调查问卷是作为这项工作的一部分而开发的，并已证明是持续进行 mQACC 推广的基础。

结果

对于 QA，许多实验室报告记录了维护、校准和调整 (82%)；已建立数据存储和归档流程（71%）；将数据存入公共存储库（55%）；为所有实验室流程制定标准操作程序 (SOP)（68%）并对实验室流程人员进行培训（55%）。对于质量控制，普遍做法包括对至少一些检测到的化合物使用系统适用性程序 (100%) 和使用强大的识别系统（代谢组学标准倡议 1 级识别标准）。大多数实验室使用QC样品（>86%）；使用内部标准（91%）；使用指定的分析采集模板和随机实验样本（91%）；并在数据采集后手动检查峰积分 (86%)。少数实验室在其工作流程中纳入了实验样品的技术复制（36%）。

结论

尽管这 23 名贡献者是来自学术界、工业界和政府的具有多元化和国际背景的研究人员，但由于参与者的招募方式及其自愿性质，他们不一定能代表全球从业者群体。然而，这里提出的调查问卷和调查结果已经为 mQACC 在会议和其他外展活动中收集数据的努力提供了信息和指导，并将继续发展，以指导社区内最佳实践建议的讨论，并建立国际商定的协议。报告标准。我们非常欢迎本文读者的进一步反馈。