Chemists Build a Modular Platform That Sorts the Metabolome by Reactivity

A study in Advanced Science describes a modular reactivity-encoding platform (MREP) designed to make metabolomics more complete by grouping metabolites based on chemical behavior before mass-spectrometry analysis. The researchers say standard liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry workflows often miss certain metabolites because they ionize or bind poorly, creating a biased view of cellular chemistry. MREP uses four alkyne-tagged probes—BYA for carboxyl groups, DEB for amines, AHZ for carbonyls, and NPM for thiols—then captures the encoded metabolites with a single azide-functionalized resin (ACER) via copper-catalyzed click chemistry. The approach is meant to expand what instruments can detect by splitting the metabolome into chemically coherent layers.