Technological developments and opportunities with Workflow4Metabolomics

Metabolomics data analysis is a complex, multistep process, which is constantly evolving with the development of new analytical technologies, mathematical methods, bioinformatics tools and databases. The latest online Workflow4Metabolomics infrastructure^[1] provides new upgrades for LC-MS, GC-MS and NMR pipelines, including preprocessing, quality control, statistical analysis and annotation tools. W4M also proposes new community resources promoting open science in metabolomics.

W4M major updates include: a new MSMS pipeline; MS extraction workflows based on the XCMS3.0 R package^[2]; data filtering and visualization steps based on Analytic Correlation Filtration^[3] and Between-table correlation tools; metabolite databases downloader; a contaminant identifier, and utilitarian tools. New training resources through the Galaxy Training Network (GTN) are proposed and W4M is announcing the opening of its GitHub repository to gather metabolomics tools and libraries.

W4M’s improvements increase raw data input management and LC/GC-MS workflow efficiency. We highlight how current advances contribute to open data analysis practices worldwide. In addition the W4M organization on Github repository aims to review code, annotate tool and propose a showcase for contributors from the metabolomics world.