Dissemination and Analysis of the Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) Practices of LC-MS Based Untargeted Metabolomics Practitioners
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. As an initial step, members of the consortium and several non-members who used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) untargeted metabolomics were asked to voluntarily participate in a collaborative research project and took part by providing the QA and QC practices utilized in their laboratories, via a six-page questionnaire composed of over 120 questions and comment fields. All contributors to this project are authors. Responses were then analyzed to identify common and divergent QA and QC practices among the contributing laboratories. 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%). Due to the recruitment method for participants and its voluntary nature, although the 23 contributors were researchers with diverse and international backgrounds from academia, industry and government, most being current members of mQACC, they are not necessarily representative of the worldwide pool of ...
