Decoding the Molecular Universe -- Workshop Report
Abstract
On August 9-10, 2023, a workshop was convened at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA that brought together a group of internationally recognized experts in metabolomics, natural products discovery, chemical ecology, chemical and biological threat assessment, cheminformatics, computational chemistry, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and novel technology development. These experts were invited to assess the value and feasibility of a grand-scale project to create new technologies that would allow the identification and quantification of all small molecules, or to decode the molecular universe. The Decoding the Molecular Universe project would extend and complement the success of the Human Genome Project by developing new capabilities and technologies to measure small molecules (defined as non-protein, non-polymer molecules less than 1500 Daltons) of any origin and generated in biological systems or produced abiotically. Workshop attendees 1) explored what new understanding of biological and environmental systems could be revealed through the lens of small molecules; 2) characterized the similarities in current needs and technical challenges between each science or mission area for unambiguous and comprehensive determination of the composition and quantities of small molecules of any sample; 3) determined the extent to which technologies or methods currently exist for unambiguously and comprehensively determining the small molecule composition of any sample and in a reasonable time; and 4) identified the attributes of the ideal technology or approach for universal small molecule measurement and identification. The workshop concluded with a discussion of how a project of this scale could be undertaken, possible thrusts for the project, early proof-of-principle applications, and similar efforts upon which the project could be modeled.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2311.11437,
title = {Decoding the Molecular Universe -- Workshop Report},
author = {Thomas O. Metz and Joshua N. Adkins and Peter B. Armentrout and Patrick Chain and Fanny Chu and Courtney D Corley and John R. Cort and Elizabeth Denis and Daniel Drell and Katherine R. Duncan and Robert G. Ewing and Facundo M. Fernandez and Oliver Fiehn and Neha Garg and Stefan Grimme and Christopher Henry and Robert L. Hettich and Tobias Kind and Roger G. Linington and Gary W. Miller and Trent Northen and Kirsten Overdahl and Ari Patrinos and Daniel Raftery and Paul Rigor and Richard D. Smith and Jon Sobus and Justin Teeguarden and Akos Vertes and Katrina Waters and Bobbie-Jo Webb-Robertson and Antony Williams and David Wishart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.11437},
year = {2023}
}