Unraveling Glycerophospholipidomes by Lipidomics

In recent years, proteomics has driven developments of mass spectrometric approaches. Simultaneously, the research community has regained a major interest in lipids, with mass spectrometry unambiguously facilitating the development of lipidomics. Quantitative determination of molecular lipids is essential for addressing the role of lipids in cellular membranes and in metabolic dysfunctions, potentially leading to a disease state. Lipidomics has therefore evoked great interest in academic research laboratories and in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in biomarker and drug discovery. A high-throughput oriented lipidomics methodology enabling quantitative analysis of the glycerophospholipidome in an automated fashion is described in this chapter. The methodology explicitly shows enormous potential and promises to play a key role in cell biology, molecular medicine, and drug discovery.