Executive Summary

Project Objectives
The primary aim of the European Lipidomics Initiative (ELIfe) was to mobilize and organize key stakeholders, researchers and end-users in the area of metabolomics, especially lipidomics research, and to further define this field of research in terms of participants, scientific contents and strengths.
Objective 1: To network the field of metabolomics and to seek alliances with relevant stakeholders

The consortium should network and position the field of Lipidomics. Other areas of Metabolomics research like Glycomics and Signalomics (signaling lipids, lipid hormones) would be involved in all activities. Researchers, stakeholders from the health care profession and from industry with special emphasis on SMEs would be invited to join ELIfe activities at the earliest possible stage.

Objective 2: To link the field of metabolomics to the genomics and proteomics initiatives

One special challenge was to adapt bio-informatics as devised for Genomics and Proteomics to the field of Metabolomics. The choice of the technology to be used would define the type of bio-informatics approaches necessary to deal with the large body of data expected from Lipidomics and in a wider sense Metabolomics.