Laboratory instruments can now detect signals from thousands of metabolites in biological samples. With these data, goals that were beyond reach, such as identifying food intake biomarkers or compounds formed in the gut microbiota, become reachable. But major obstacles remain.

ELution's main goal is to implement a new multidisciplinary concept to enhance annotation of metabolites by

(a) integrating existing metabolomics platforms for more accurate combined annotation, and

(b) supplementing mass spectral databases with synthetic mass spectra from quantum chemistry-based simulation methods.

With this highly improved annotation of metabolites, we create new possibilities in data analysis and knowledge discovery. By combining multidisciplinary expertise in one lab, we propose a synergy with the potential of a large impact in nutrition, and human health in general.