News & Events

Congratulations to one of our former group members, Jen Wild, on her paper outlining potential urinary biomarkers for the dietary assessment of phenylketonuria (PKU). Considering the management of PKU requires lifelong restriction of phenylalanine (Phe) intake, typically specialized medical foods are used to prevent neurocognitive impairment in affected patients, and thus a need for a non-invasive assessment of dietary adherence is important. Plasma metabolomic studies demonstrated that non-adherent PKU patients had lower circulating concentrations of Tyr, arginine, 2-aminobutyric acid, and propionylcarnitine that were inversely correlated to Phe. Nontargeted metabolite profiling also revealed urinary biomarkers associated with poor dietary adherence among PKU patients, including elevated concentrations of catabolites indicative of Phe intoxication (e.g., phenylpyruvic acid, phenylacetylglutamine, hydroxyphenylacetic acid). Take a look at her manuscript below:

Metabolomics for improved treatment monitoring of phenylketonuria: urinary biomarkers for non-invasive assessment of dietary adherence and nutritional deficiencies

We are very excited for another recent publication out of the Britz-McKibbin group. To date this is one of our largest collaborations involving Health Science here at McMaster. Why not take a look at Nadine's results where she metabolically phenotyped 42 healthy participants after being assigned either a "prudent" or "western" diet using single spot urine and fasting plasma samples to provide a complete list of biomarkers for changes in habitual diet of participants. Targeted and nontargeted metabolite profiling was conducted using three complementary analytical platforms, where 80 plasma metabolites and 84 creatinine-normalized urinary metabolites were reliably measured in the majority of participants. Check it out...

Metabolic Trajectories Following Contrasting Prudent and Western Diets from Food Provisions: Identifying Robust Biomarkers of Short-Term Changes in Habitual Diet

We are excited to announce two more papers from the Britz-McKibbin group have been accepted!

Jen Wild's work on improved monitoring of PKU paitents titled "Metabolomics for Improved Treatment Monitoring of Phenylketonuria: Urinary Biomarkers for Non-invasive Assessment of Dietary Adherence and Nutritional Deficiencies" was recently accepted in Analyst.

As well as Nadine Wellington's work titled "Elucidating the Anomalous Binding Enhancement of Isoquinoline Boronic Acid in Acidic Conditions for Sialic Acid: Biorecognition Beyond Vicinal Diols" was recently accepted in Chemistry - A European Journal.

Congrats to both of these former students! Stay tuned for more information when both papers are published.

Check out Michelle Saoi's recent publication in the Journal of Proteomics Research titled High Throughput Screening of Serum γ-Glutamyl Dipeptides for Risk Assessment of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis with Impaired Glutathione Salvage Pathway. Considering the exact mechanisms of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) pathophysiology remain poorly understood, including its progression to the more severe nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), Michelle's research highlights a targeted analysis of a panel of 16 serum γ-glutamyl dipeptides from a cohort of NASH adult patients from Japan. SPOILER ALERT! Her findings highlight the key role of defects in the γ-glutamyl cycle for differentiation of NASH patients, which may enable better risk assessment of long-term survivorship as a complement to standard liver enzyme screens and histopathology.

Study Summary: In collaboration with Spark Medical Cannabis Clinic and PureSinse, a licensed producer of medicinal cannabis, the Britz-McKibbin research group at McMaster University is currently studying how the metabolism of cannabis differs in humans when ingested orally as an oil extract or vaped/smoked as a dried leaf.

This work is especially relevant for patients taking other medications concurrently, and who suffer from chronic pain, anxiety, or insomnia. Several factors impact patient treatment responses to prescribed medicinal cannabis, which remain poorly understood, and highly variable between subjects.

This study aims to better identify and characterize various metabolites of cannabis, known as cannabinoids, that are excreted in urine reflecting how quickly and in what manner the body eliminates medicinal cannabis.

Knowledge gained from this study will help us better understand how medicinal cannabis can be optimally prescribed to individual patients as a way to maximize its therapeutic benefits safely without any adverse drug interactions.

Investigating medical cannabis metabolism: Each person metabolizes cannabis differently depending on lifestyle, genes, mode if intake, and other factors that remain poorly understand. By studying small molecules found in your urine known as metabolites, we can better understand your individual metabolism. This information may help doctors better prescribe medicinal cannabis for optimized therapeutic benefits.

Participation: You are free to leave the study at any time ever after enrolment. Your decision will not affect the level of care you receive at SPARK. Participants of this study will receive a $10 Starbucks gift card upon their second visit to SPARK clinic.

After a very productive summer here in the Britz group, and after saying good-bye to our summer undergrads we are really excited to welcome our new undergrads and a grad student to our research group. A warm welcome to our new MSc candidate (Chemistry) Megan Magee who recently completed her undergrad at Guelph University in Chemistry. After taking a year off she's excited to be back and participating in some exciting, novel research in the Britz-McKibbin group. Also we welcome, our new undergraduate research and co-op students, Eric, Hani, Paula, Nicole, and Sena, we look forward to an exciting year ahead and can't wait to hear about all of you progress on your respective projects.

We very excited to have been able to contribute to the latest GIT Laboratory & Biotechnology issue. Check out our article by Meera, Zach, Sabrina, and Dr. Britz titled Comprehensive Surveillance of Drugs of Abuse: A Method for Rapid and Accurate Urine Drug Testing in an Opioid Crisis.

The opioid crisis is an emerging public health emergency as reflected by the alarming increase in opioid-related deaths and addictions across North America. This is largely attributed to their widespread use as analgesics for the treatment of chronic pain. This problem is further compounded by the concurrent use of by other medications prone to abuse and poisoning, which are increasingly used without a prescription (e.g. benzodiazepenes). The adulteration of illicit drugs has also contributed to a rise in accidental drug overdose fatalities due to access to highly potent yet inexpensive synthetic opioids on the illegal drug market, such as fentanyl. In this context, methadone maintenance programs offer a harm reduction strategy to treat opioid addiction as methadone acts as a long-acting opioid agonist that inhibits pain while attenuating opioid withdrawal symptoms without generating euphoric-like sensations. However, optimum dose regimes are critical for successful treatment outcomes given

A big thank-you to Sabrina, Sean, Rochelle, and Nick for a great summer in the Brtiz-McKibbin group. We really enjoyed mentoring you this summer and can't wait to hear all about your future endeavours. We hope you truly enjoyed your summer with us, we sure did!!!

Looking forward to September when Nick will be re-joining us as a CHEM 3RP3 student along with our other undergraduate thesis students. Best of luck to all our out-going and in-coming undergrads during your Fall semester.

We are so happy to promote our latest collaboration with McMaster's Health Science Department. Congratulations Nadine on getting your DIGEST (Diet & Gene Interaction Study) work published, great work. Take a look at her paper below, some really interesting research on being able to metabolically differentiate patient diets. This could revolutionize the use to food frequency questionaires.

Metabolic Trajectories Following Contrasting Prudent and Western Diets from Food Provisions: Robust Biomarkers of Short-Term Changes in Habitual Diet

We always love getting the opportunity to try new things. Check out what Dr. Britz had to say about the ongoing opioid crisis in North America.

The opioid epidemic is a complex and multi-layered problem. In the episode Dr. Britz contributed to, they explore how various factors are contributing to this crisis. They also delve into how one novel drug testing methodology might just be one piece of the puzzle to combat the epidemic.

Episode 28 – A Piece of the Puzzle

A very warm welcome to Gustavo from Brazil who is here to shadow us for a few weeks before translating CE-MS to his research group. We can't wait to share all our wisdom and can't wait to learn from you as well! As a lab group we headed to an escape room this afternoon. Of course we escaped, nobody can keep the Britz-McKibbin group locked up!!!

A very big congratulations to Nadine who successfully defended her PhD (Targeted and Non-Targeted Metabolite Analysis for Disease Risk Assessment) today. Welcome to the PhD club! We can't wait to hear all about your future endeavors, we know you'll make a significant impact no matter where you end up. We hope you enjoyed your sip out of the chalice at the Phoenix this afternoon.

It is always a pleasure to hear all about a members research and the contributions they have made in their field of study. Great seminar today Nadine, best of luck at your defense on Thursday. Come on out if your free - Thursday August 1st at 9:30am in the Grad Studies Office.

They say in academia summer is the time you are most productive and that is definitely the case this summer in the Britz group with another publication coming out today. Congratulations to Michelle (first author) and Alice (second author), both from our group, on your publication in Metabolites. Take a look at their findings on how metabolomics was used to study step reduction in older adults and their potential increased risk of developing sarcopenia.

Metabolic Perturbations from Step Reduction in Older Persons at Risk for Sarcopenia: Plasma Biomarkers of Abrupt Changes in Physical Activity

Thanks McMaster University for featuring Mai's recent research into finding a possible urine biomarker for the accurate diagnosis of IBD (irritable bowel syndrome). Considering the prevalence of IBD, we hope this is only the beginning of it's diagnostic testing. Take a looks at the article published on McMaster's website.

Scientists find simple urine test could offer a non-invasive approach for diagnosis of IBS patients

Take a look at Mai's recent publication in Metabolomics where elevated urinary levels of collagen degradation and epithelial cell turnover products were discovered in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. Hopefully this novel discovery can help with the accurate diagnosis of IBS pateints which is currently the most commonly diagnosed functional gastrointestinal disorder in developed countries.

Metabolomics reveals elevated urinary excretion of collagen degradation and epithelial cell turnover products in irritable bowel syndrome patients

We had a great time attending Metabolomics 2019 in the Netherlands. Hopefully you had the chance to visit Sandi and Dr. Britz's posters during the conference to hear about Sandi's research on reliable fatty acid biomarkers of maternal dietary fat intake and the group's research (presented by Dr. Britz) in collaboration with the DIGEST study. It was also great catching up with former members of the Britz-McKibbin group: Adriana and Mai.

A massive congratulations to Michelle Saoi on her successful PhD defence this morning. Although we are sad to see you go we couldn't be happier on your success. Best of luck in New York during your Post Doc!!

What a great afternoon in the Britz-McKibbin lab getting to support Michelle Saoi at her departmental seminar. We love being able to support one another and hear about the research we have all been up to. Michelle has provided very meaningful advancements in tissue metabolomics using capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry. From research on the effects of sarcopenia in older adults to observing the metabolomic effects of ingesting bicarbonate during strenuous exercise, Michelle is definitely on the cutting edge of a lot of interesting research. Come on out this Tuesday June 18th to Michelle's PhD defence at 9am if you want to hear more.

A big congratulations to Mai on her convocation after successfully defending her PhD last winter. Also a congratulations to our undergraduate students, Zach, Sabrina, Tiffany, Holly, Richel, Lucas, and Rebecca on graduating from the Bachelor of Science program here at McMaster. From Mai to the undergrads, we know each one of you are going to go on to do wonderful things and we can't wait to hear all about it. 

Great presentations Stellena and Ritchie at CSC last week. Also great poster Erick! Looking forward to the productive summer ahead continuing our research.

We had a great time at the 2nd annual Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research Conference on Friday and Saturday. Sabrina presented a great poster on using Multisegment Injection-Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry, a method developed in the Britz Group, for detecting cannabis metabolites in urine.

Help us congratulate Sandi on her Program Excellence Award! The Britz Group couldn't be prouder to see your success and be apart of your research opportunities.

Check our Ritchie's, Erick's and Stellena's posters at the event being held in Quebec City from June 3rd to June 7th 2019.

A warm welcome to Sean, Rochelle and Nicolas our new undergraduate students. We are looking forward to a productive summer and can't wait to see the progress you all make on your projects.

We are so excited to share our JoVE article and video. Thanks for all the hard work Meera, Zach, Sabrina and Clara! Take a minute and check it out for yourself (link below).

High-throughput and Comprehensive Drug Surveillance Using Multisegment Injection-capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry

A big congratulations to all of our undergraduate thesis students, Rebecca, Richel, Holly, Tiffany and Lucas, on their presentations today. We wish you nothing but the best for the future and have enjoyed participating in your research this past semester. 

Congrats Sabrina on your successful thesis presentation today. We can't wait to continue our cannabis assay research and development this summer.