Agilent Technologies Introduces First Commercial Software for Metabolic Flux Analysis

Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced new software to help researchers analyze qualitative metabolic flux—tracking the different pathways a metabolite participates in under different biological experiments.

This analytical capability is of particular interest to cancer researchers who want to better understand the metabolic pathways associated with cancer cells.

Agilent introduced VistaFlux at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2016 in New Orleans.

“MassHunter VistaFlux speeds up clinical research data analysis so scientists can quickly understand the underlying cause of diseases, such as cancer,” said Monty Benefiel, Agilent vice president and general manager, Mass Spectrometry Division.

“The new Agilent VistaFlux will be an essential tool for us,” said Dr. Simon Thain, metabolic phenotyping manager, GeneMill, University of Liverpool. “I have been waiting 10 years for software like VistaFlux. It will allow my lab to complete flux projects in a fraction of the time.”

VistaFlux, the first commercially available software of its kind, is the newest addition to the company’s comprehensive suite of software for metabolomics and the MassHunter MS software portfolio.

With VistaFlux software, researchers will be able to more easily analyze data from targeted metabolic flux experiments when using Agilent time-of-flight and quadrupole time-of-flight liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems.

“VistaFlux enables cutting-edge, targeted, isotopologue data extraction and pathway visualization of flux results for greater biological understanding,” Benefiel said. “It will enable multidisciplinary research teams to quickly mine and interpret the data they collect from targeted qualitative flux experiments.”