"Metabolomics" is a word most non-biological-minded people have a hard time pronouncing, but it is a study that affects human health, and the University has been given a $1.1 million grant from Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust to research the regulation of cellular metabolism.

Researchers will use the funds to purchase equipment and build the Carver Center for Metabolomics laboratory, which will be in the Chemical and Life Sciences Laboratory, 601 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana. Additional funds will be provided by the University and the microbiology and chemistry schools, which are involved in the center. The center is expected to be completed within the year.

"What I hope to come out of this is that this will be the world's best expertise in understanding small molecule production and regulation in bacteria," said Wilfred Van Der Donk, a chemistry professor. "I don't know of any lab or any center in the world that is specifically looking at this right now."

Metabolites are relatively small molecules made from enzyme reactions, and they perform a series of functions — some are sugars, amino acids, lipids or hormones. When studying metabolomics, researchers look at a profile of metabolites and how they change with different conditions, said Brenda Wilson, microbiology professor.

Wilson, Van Der Donk and William Metcalf, a microbiology professor, submitted the proposal for the Carver Trust. They believed the center would allow researchers from various fields on campus to work together in researching similar problems and interests.

"I think it's really a nucleation point for collaborations on this campus where chemists, cell biologists, microbiologists and biochemists will all be able to start collaborations," Van Der Donk said.

Collaboration in anticipation of the center has already begun. Metcalf and Van Der Donk are combining their research to understand how nature makes its compounds. Through this research, they will produce antibiotics chemically and observe how they derivate from natural products, Van Der Donk said.

Because bacteria are constantly building a resistance against current antibiotics, researchers must continue to search for new antibiotics. Researchers can look at metabolic profiles to predict what disease someone might have. This could be beneficial for early treatment and a better understanding of the disease, Wilson said.

Researchers will also look at food nutrition through the center's studies.

"If we are able to funnel certain foods to produce high quality metabolites which are sugars and fats and things we need," Wilson said, "we might be able to engineer plants and animals to produce better foods."

Wilson also said that fermentation processes can be enhanced so that more food can be produced and ultimately more people can be fed.

"If you look at the metabolomic profile and you know what enzymes are important for a particular step and you find that particular enzyme is not optimal, you can change that enzyme," Wilson said. "You can enhance its activity so that it actually makes more of what it's supposed to do."

Because the center will be a facility rather than a research service, students will benefit from the training they will receive through research and hands-on experience, Wilson said.

Heather Relyea, a graduate student, is one of the students expected to work in the center.

"I'm an organic chemist, so I don't know much about genetics at all. So the center is a way and place to interact with people who do know," Relyea said. "The center will be good to interact with people in other departments. It allows a broader range of research and departments to work together."