Overview

• The Nature Protocols paper published on August 22 details an anion-exchange chromatography mass spectrometry method for cells, tissues and biofluids (DOI: 10.1038/s41596-025-01222-z).
• An inline electrolytic ion suppressor enables direct coupling of ion-exchange chromatography to mass spectrometry, addressing a long-standing technical barrier and improving specificity and selectivity.
• The protocol supports untargeted and semi-targeted analyses with minimal sample preparation, capturing hundreds of metabolites across primary pathways such as glycolysis, the TCA cycle and nucleotide metabolism.
• Validated applications include detecting circulating microbiome-derived butyrate associated with host immune responses and revealing glucose-driven inhibition of GAPDH and PDH in diabetic β-cells with downstream metabolic effects.
• The McCullagh Group reports ongoing use in studies of gut microbiome metabolism, antimicrobial resistance impacts on bacterial metabolism, and biomarker discovery for early cancer detection.