BSc (Hons), 1993, University of Hull, Chemistry with Analytical Chemistry and Toxicology
PhD, 1996, University of Hull, Mass Spectrometry

Dr Dunn completed his BSc studies at The University of Hull and subsequently performed PhD studies at BP Chemicals and The University of Hull to develop innovative mass spectrometry interfaces to allow on-line monitoring of liquid chemical process streams. From 1997 Dr Dunn has been employed in industry (Croda Chemicals) and academia (IACR-Rothamsted, University of Sheffield, University of Manchester) where he has developed and applied analytical techniques to the study of chemical and biological systems.

From 2001 Dr Dunn has focused his research on the development and application of metabolomic techniques, firstly at The University of Sheffield to study plant metabolism (2001-2002) and subsequently at The University of Manchester (2003-2012) where he focused on the study of microbial and mammalian systems. Dr Dunn attained a Lectureship in 2011 and moved to The University of Birmingham in early 2013 to continue his research in applying metabolomics techniques to translational biomedical research and developing new tools to aid in the higher resolution of complex samples and datasets.

For further information on PhD opportunities please visit http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=40629&LID=124

Current students

• Martin Jones, School of Biosciences, co-supervisor
• Kate Hollinshead, School of Cancer Sciences, co-supervisor

Research Theme within School of Biosciences: BioSystems and Environmental Change (BEC)

Keywords: metabolomics, mass spectrometry, biomedical research, translational medicine

Development of metabolomic workflows

The study of the complex interactions of metabolites in biochemical networks (metabolomics) is becoming a routinely applied research tool to interrogate biological systems. Metabolites act as building blocks for many different types of biochemical and structures, are dynamically involved in many regulatory mechanisms (allosterism and epigenetics as examples) and they provide a sensitive and dynamic measure of the system phenotype. The first of my group’s research objectives, in close collaboration with Professor Mark Viant’s research group, is the development of experimental workflows to study biological systems. Continuing developments are focused on

• metabolite annotation and identification with a focus on applying accurate mass and MSⁿ data acquired on chromatography-mass spectrometry platforms
• quality control samples and their application for quality assurance in untargeted metabolomic studies
• sample collection and preparation of mammalian biofluids, cells and tissues
• untargeted chromatography-mass spectrometry methods for metabolic profiling of diverse sample types
• targeted chromatography-mass spectrometry methods for quantitative studies of metabolites
• integration and interpretation of metabolomic and transcriptomic datasets

Investigating the role of metabolites in human health and disease

Systems Science for Health is a University of Birmingham initiative to integrate ‘omics technologies with mathematical and computational methodologies to study human health and disease. The primary objective is to integrate key skills from different disciplines to develop new treatments for human diseases, to increase patient benefit and to improve patient outcome and longer-term health. An integral part of this initiative is to apply ‘omics technologies including metabolomics, the second objective of my research group.

The untargeted or targeted studies of metabolites can provide data applied to understand molecular pathophysiological mechanisms associated with human health and disease, to act as prognostic or diagnostic biomarkers of disease or to act as biomarkers to define efficacy and toxicity of disease interventions (for example, therapeutics) or to apply biomarkers in personalized medicine. My group collaborates with clinicians and biomedical researchers in areas of translational biomedical research including the following:

• Cardiovascular diseases
• Endocrinology
• Inflammation
• Immunology
• Complications of pregnancy
• Children’s development and associated diseases

Continuing developments are applying systems medicine approaches through in-silico integration and analysis of ‘omic datasets and this will continue to modeling of interaction networks specific to disease phenotypes.

 

International Society membership includes:

• Member of The Metabolomics Society (2005 to present)
• Member of The British Mass Spectrometry Society (2003 to present)
• Member of The Royal Society of Chemistry (1991 to present)

Activities related to professional bodies and conference organization:

• Guest Editor for a special issue of the journal Metabolomics (2012-2013)
• Editorial board member of the journal Metabolomics (2012-present)
• Member of the Organising Committee for Metabomeeting 2012 (Manchester, September 2012)
• Director of The Metabolomics Society (2010-present)

In the period 2010-2012 Warwick Dunn presented lectures at the following conferences, workshops and seminar series;

• 1^st and 2nd International Workshops on metabolomics and proteomics, (Bilbao, Spain),
• 5th European Human ex-vivo Placental Perfusion Workshop (Manchester, UK),
• 12th Plymouth Symposium on Obesity, Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome (Plymouth, UK),
• Metabomeeting 2011 (Helsinki, Finland),
• Max Rubner Conference 2011 – “Food Metabolomics” (Karlsruhre, Germany),
• The 7th International Conference of The Metabolomics Society (Cairns, Australia),
• British Yeast Group Annual Meeting (Brighton, UK),
• Advances in Metabolic Profiling conference (Florence, Italy),
• 2nd Australasian Symposium on Metabolomics 2010 (Melbourne, Australia),
• The Metabolomics Society’s 6th Annual International Conference (Amsterdam, The Netherlands),
• Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology seminar series, (Oxford, UK).

Public engagement activities include acting as a STEMNET Ambassador (2012-present) and involvement in outreach for students and the general public. This includes stands at public engagement events (for example, The International Clinical Trials Day in 2012), A-Level study days and Meet the Scientists workshops.

Dunn, W.B., Erban, A., Weber, R.J.M., Creek, D.J., Brown, M., Breitling, R., Hankemeier, T. Goodacre, R., Neumann, S., Kopka, J., Viant, M.R. Mass appeal: metabolite identification in mass spectrometry-focused untargeted metabolomics. Metabolomics, in press, DOI 10.1007/s11306-012-0434-4

Dunn, W.B., Brown, M.,Worton, S.A., Davies, K., Jones, R.L., Kell, D.B. & Heazell, A.E.P. The metabolome of human placental tissue: investigation of first trimester tissue and changes related to preeclampsia in late pregnancy. Metabolomics, 2012, 8, 579-597  

Vaughan A.A., Dunn W.B., Allwood J.W., Wedge D.C., Blackhall F.H., Whetton A.D., Dive C., Goodacre R. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry calibration transfer and metabolomics data fusion. Anal. Chem. 2012, 84, 9848-57.

Dunn W.B., Wilson I.D., Nicholls A.W., Broadhurst D. The importance of experimental design and QC samples in large-scale and MS-driven untargeted metabolomic studies of humans. Bioanalysis. 2012, 4, 2249-64.

Lee, D., Smallbone, K., Dunn, W.B., Murabito, E., Winder, C.L., Kell, D.B., Mendes, P. and Swainston, N. Improving metabolic flux predictions using absolute gene expression data. BMC Systems Biology, 2012, 6, 73.

Dunn W.B., Summers A., Brown M., Goodacre R., Lambie M., Johnson T., Wilkie M., Davies S., Topley N., Brenchley P. Proof-of-principle study to detect metabolic changes in peritoneal dialysis effluent in patients who develop encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis. Nephrol. Dial. Transplant. 2012, 27, 2502

Ugarte, M., Brown, M., Hollywood, K.A., Cooper, G.J., Bishop, P.N., Dunn, W.B. Metabolomic analysis of rat serum in streptozotocin-induced diabetes and after treatment with oral triethylenetetramine (TETA). Genome Med. 2012, 4, 35.

Dikicioglu, D., Dunn, W.B., Kell, D.B., Kirdar, B., Oliver, S.G. Short- and long-term dynamic responses of the metabolic network and gene expression in yeast to a transient change in the nutrient environment. Mol. Biosyst. 2012, 8, 1760-74.

Dunn, W.B., Goodacre, R., Neyses, L., Mamas, M. Integration of metabolomics in heart disease and diabetes research: current achievements and future outlook. Bioanalysis, 2011, 3, 2205.

Carroll, K.M., Simpson, D.M., Eyers, C.E., Knight, C.G., Brownridge, P., Dunn, W.B., Winder, C.L., Lanthaler, K., Pir, P., Malys, N., Kell, D.B., Oliver, S.G., Gaskell, S.J., Beynon, R.J. Absolute quantification of the glycolytic pathway in yeast: deployment of a complete QconCAT approach. Mol. Cell Proteomics 2011, 10, M111.007633.

Wedge, D.C., Allwood, J.W., Dunn, W.B., Vaughan, A.A., Simpson, K., Brown, M., Priest, L., Blackhall, F.H., Whetton, A.D., Dive, C., Goodacre, R. Is serum or plasma more appropriate for intersubject comparisons in metabolomic studies? An assessment in patients with small-cell lung cancer. Anal. Chem. 2011, 83, 6689.

Dunn, W.B., Broadhurst, D., Begley, P., Zelena, E., Francis-McIntyre, S., Anderson, N., Brown, M., Knowles, J.D., Halsall, A., Haselden, J.N., Nicholls, A.W., Wilson, I.D., Kell, D.B., Goodacre, R., Human Serum Metabolome (HUSERMET) Consortium. Procedures for large-scale metabolic profiling of serum and plasma using gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Nature Protocols 2011, 6, 1060.

Winder, C.L., Dunn, W.B., Goodacre, R. TARDIS-based microbial metabolomics: time and relative differences in systems. Trends Microbiol. 2011, 19, 315.

Brown, M., Wedge, D.C., Goodacre, R., Kell, D.B., Baker, P.N., Kenny, L.C., Mamas, M.A., Neyses, L., Dunn, W.B. Automated workflows for accurate mass-based putative metabolite identification in LC/MS-derived metabolomic datasets. Bioinformatics 2011, 27, 1108.

Heazell, A.E., Brown, M., Worton, S.A., Dunn, W.B. Review: The effects of oxygen on normal and pre-eclamptic placental tissue--insights from metabolomics. Placenta 2011, 32 Suppl 2, S119.

Li, P., Dada, J.O., Jameson, D., Spasic, I., Swainston, N., Carroll, K., Dunn, W.B., Khan, F., Malys, N., Messiha, H.L., Simeonidis, E., Weichart, D., Winder, C., Wishart, J., Broomhead, D.S., Goble, C.A., Gaskell, S.J., Kell, D.B., Westerhoff, H.V., Mendes, P., Paton, N.W. Systematic integration of experimental data and models in systems biology. BMC Bioinformatics 2010, 11, 582.

Xu, Y., Cheung, W., Winder, C.L., Dunn, W.B., Goodacre, R. Metabolic profiling of meat: assessment of pork hygiene and contamination with Salmonella typhimurium. Analyst 2011, 136, 508.

Dobson P.D., Smallbone K., Jameson D., Simeonidis E., Lanthaler K., Pir P., Lu C., Swainston N., Dunn W.B., Fisher P., Hull D., Brown M., Oshota O., Stanford N.J., Kell D.B., King R.D., Oliver S.G., Stevens R.D., Mendes P. Further developments towards a genome-scale metabolic model of yeast. BMC Systems Biology 2010, 4, 145.

Mamas M., Dunn W.B., Neyses L., Goodacre R. The role of metabolites and metabolomics in clinically applicable biomarkers of disease. Arch. Toxicol. 2011, 85, 5.

Soydemir, F., Kuruvilla, S., Brown, M., Dunn, W.B., Day, P., Crocker, I.P., Baker, P.N., Sibley, C.P., Brownbill, P. Adapting in vitro dual perfusion of the human placenta to soluble oxygen tensions associated with normal and pre-eclamptic pregnancy. Lab. Invest. 2011, 91, 181.

Dunn W.B., Broadhurst D.I., Atherton H.J., Goodacre R., Griffin J.L. Systems level studies of mammalian metabolomes: the roles of mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2011, 40, 387.

Horgan, R.P., Broadhurst, D.I., Walsh, S.K., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Roberts, C.T., North, R.A., McCowan, L.M., Kell, D.B., Baker, P.N., Kenny, L.C. Metabolic profiling uncovers a phenotypic signature of small for gestational age in early pregnancy. J. Proteome Res. 2011, 10, 3660.

Winder, C.L. and Dunn, W.B. ‘Fit for Purpose Quenching and Extraction Protocols for Metabolic Profiling of Yeast using Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Platforms’ in Yeast Systems Biology: Methods and Protocols, Methods Mol Biol. 2011, 759, 225.

Dunn, W.B., Winder CL. ‘Sample preparation related to the intracellular metabolome of yeast methods for quenching, extraction, and metabolite quantitation’ in Methods in Systems Biology, Methods Enzymol. 2011, 500, 277.

Dunn, W.B. ‘Mass spectrometry in systems biology: an introduction’ in Methods in Systems Biology, Methods Enzymol. 2011, 500, 15.

Kenny, L.C., Broadhurst, D.I., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., North, R.A., McCowan, L., Roberts, C., Cooper, G.J.S., Kell, D.B. and Baker, P.N. Robust early pregnancy prediction of later preeclampsia using metabolomic biomarkers. Hypertension, 2010, 56, 741.

Horgan, R., Broadhurst, D.I., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Heazell, A.E., Kell, D.B., Baker, P.N. and Kenny, L.C. Changes in the Metabolic Footprint of Placental Villous Explant-Conditioned Medium cultured in different oxygen tensions from placentas of Small for Gestational Age and normal pregnancies. Placenta, 2010, 31, 893.

Kassama, Y., Xu, Y., Dunn, W.B., Geukens, N. Anné, J., Goodacre, R. Assessment of adaptive focused acoustics versus manual vortex/freeze-thaw for intracellular metabolite extraction from Streptomyces lividans producing recombinant proteins using GC-MS and multi-block principal component analysis. Analyst, 2010, 135, 934.

Westerhoff, H.V., Winder C., Messiha H., Simeonidis E., Adamczyk M., Verma M., Bruggeman F.J., Dunn W.B. Systems Biology: The elements and principles of Life, FEBS Letters, 2009, 583, 3882.

Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Worton, S.A., Crocker, I.P., Broadhurst, D., Horgan, R., Kenny, L.C., Baker, P.N., Kell, D.B., Heazell, A.E. Changes in the metabolic footprint of cultured villous trophoblast identifies metabolic disturbances related to hypoxia and pre-eclampsia. Placenta, 2009, 30, 974.

Begley, P., Francis-McIntyre, S., Dunn, W.B., Broadhurst, D.I., Halsall, A., Tseng, A., Knowles, J., HUSERMET Consortium, Goodacre, R., Kell, D.B. Development and Performance of a Gas Chromatography-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Analysis for Large-Scale Nontargeted Metabolomic Studies of Human Serum. Analytical Chemistry, 2009, 81, 7038.

Allwood, J.W., Erban, A., de Koning, J., Dunn, W.B., Luedemann, A., Lommen, A., Kay, L., Löscher, R., Kopka, J., Goodacre, R. Inter-laboratory reproducibility of fast gas chromatography–electron impact–time of flight mass spectrometry (GC-EI-TOF/MS) based plant metabolomics. Metabolomics, 2009, 5, 479.

Ong, K.R., Sims, A.H., Harvie, M., Chapman, M., Dunn, W.B., Broadhurst, D, Goodacre, R, Wilson, M, Thomas, N, Clarke, RB, Howell, A. Biomarkers of Dietary Energy Restriction in Women at Increased Risk of Breast Cancer. Cancer Prev. Res., 2009, 2, 720.

Biais B, Allwood J.W., Deborde C, Xu Y, Maucourt M, Beauvoit B, Dunn W.B., Jacob, D., Goodacre, R., Rolin, D., Moing, A. 1H NMR, GC-EI-TOFMS, and data set correlation for fruit metabolomics: application to spatial metabolite analysis in melon. Analytical Chemistry 2009, 81, 2884.

Zelena, E., Dunn, W.B., Broadhurst, D., Francis-McIntyre, S., Carroll, K.M., Begley, P., O'Hagan, S., Knowles, J.D., Halsall, A., HUSERMET Consortium, Wilson, I.D., Kell, D.B. Development of a Robust and Repeatable UPLC-MS Method for the Long-Term Metabolomic Study of Human Serum. Analytical Chemistry 2009, 81, 1357.

Brown, M., Dunn, W.B., Dobson, P., Patel, Y., Winder, C.L., Francis-McIntyre, S., Begley, P., Carroll, K., Broadhurst, D., Tseng, A., Swainston, N., Spasic, I., Goodacre, R., Kell, D.B. Mass spectrometry tools and metabolite-specific databases for molecular identification in metabolomics. Analyst 2009, 134, 1322.

Winder, C.L., Dunn, W.B., Schuler, S., Broadhurst, D., Jarvis, R., Stephens, G.M., Goodacre, R. Global metabolic profiling of Escherichia coli cultures: An evaluation of methods for quenching and extraction of intracellular metabolites. Analytical Chemistry 2008, 80, 2939.

Peiris, D., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Kell, D.B., Roy, I., Hedger J.N. Metabolite profiles of interacting mycelial fronts differ for pairings of the wood decay basidiomycete fungus, Stereum hirsutum with its competitors Coprinus micaceus and Coprinus disseminatus. Metabolomics 2008, 4, 52.

MacKenzie D.A., Defernez, M., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Fuller, L.J., de Herrera, S.R., Günther, A., James, S.A., Eagles, J., Philo, M., Goodacre, R., Roberts, I.N. Relatedness of medically important strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as revealed by phylogenetics and metabolomics. Yeast 2008, 25, 501.

Lu, H.M., Dunn, W.B., Shen, H.L., Kell, D.B., Liang, Y.Z. Comparative evaluation of software for deconvolution of metabolomics data based on GC-TOF-MS. Trac-Trends in Analytical Chemistry 2008, 27, 215.

Kenny, L.C., Broadhurst, D., Brown, M., Dunn, W.B., Redman, C.W., Kell, D.B., Baker, P.N. Detection and identification of novel metabolomic biomarkers in preeclampsia. Reproductive Sciences 2008, 15, 591.

Herrgard, M.J., Swainston, N., Dobson, P., Dunn, W.B., et al. A consensus yeast metabolic network reconstruction obtained from a community approach to systems biology. Nature Biotechnology 2008, 26, 1155.

Heazell A.E.P., Brown, M., Dunn, W.B., Worton, S.A., Crocker, I.P., Baker, P.N., Kell, D.B. Analysis of the metabolic footprint and tissue metabolome of placental villous explants cultured at different oxygen tensions reveals novel redox biomarkers. Placenta 2008, 29, 691.

Dunn, W.B., Broadhurst, D., Ellis, D.I., Brown, M., Halsall, A., O'Hagan, S., Spasic, I., Tseng A., Kell, D.B. A GC-TOF-MS study of the stability of serum and urine metabolomes during the UK Biobank sample collection and preparation protocols. International Journal of Epidemiology 2008, 37, 23.

Dunn, W.B. Current trends and future requirements for the mass spectrometric investigation of microbial, mammalian and plant metabolomes. Physical Biology 2008, 5, 011001.

Samuel, J.L., Schaub, M.C., Zaugg, M., Mamas, M., Dunn, W.B. and Swynghedauw B. Genomics in cardiac metabolism. Cardiovascular Research 2008, 79, 218.

Dunn. W.B., Broadhurst. D., Brown. M., Baker, P.N., Redman, C.W., Kenny, L.C., Kell, D.B. Metabolic profiling of serum using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography and the LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry system. Journal of Chromatography B-Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences 2008, 871, 288.

Pope, G.A., MacKenzie, D.A., Defernez, M., Aroso, M.A., Fuller, L.J., Mellon, F.A., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Goodacre, R., Kell, D.B., Marvin, M.E., Louis, E.J., Roberts, I.N. Metabolic footprinting as a tool for discriminating between brewing yeasts. Yeast 2007, 24, 667.

O'Hagan S., Dunn W.B., Knowles J.D., Broadhurst D., Williams R., Ashworth J.J., Cameron M., Kell D.B. Closed-loop, multiobjective optimization of two-dimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for serum metabolomics. Analytical Chemistry 2007, 79, 464.

Dunn, W.B., Broadhurst, D.I., Deepak, S.M., Mamta, Buch, M.H., McDowell, G., Spasic, I., Ellis, D.I., Brooks, N., Kell, D.B., Neyses, L. Serum metabolomics reveals many novel metabolic markers of heart failure, including pseudouridine and 2-oxoglutarate. Metabolomics 2007, 3, 413.

Castrillo, J.I., Zeef, L.A., Hoyle, D.C., Zhang, N., Hayes, A., Gardner, D.C., Cornell, M.J., Petty, J., Hakes, L., Wardleworth, L., Rash, B., Brown, M., Dunn, W.B., et al. Growth control of the eukaryote cell: A systems biology study in yeast. Journal of Biology 2007, 6, 4.

Ellis, D.I., Dunn, W.B., Griffin, J.L., Allwood, J.W., Goodacre, R. Metabolic fingerprinting as a diagnostic tool. Pharmacogenomics 2007, 8, 1243.

Underwood, B.R., Broadhurst, D., Dunn, W.B., Ellis, D.I., Michell, A.W., Vacher, C., Mosedale, D.E., Kell, D.B., Barker, R.A., Grainger, D.J., Rubinsztein, D.C. Huntington disease patients and transgenic mice have similar pro-catabolic serum metabolite profiles. Brain 2006, 129, 877.

Spasic, I., Dunn W.B., Velarde, G., Tseng, A., Jenkins, H., Hardy, N., Oliver, S.G., Kell, D.B. MeMo: a hybrid SQL/XML approach to metabolomic data management for functional genomics. BMC Bioinformatics 2006, 7, 281.

Vaidyanathan, S., Jones, D., Broadhurst, D.I., Ellis, J., Jenkins, T., Dunn, W.B., Hayes, A., Burton, N., Oliver, S.G., Kell, D.B., Goodacre, A. A laser desorption ionisation mass spectrometry approach for high throughput metabolomics. Metabolomics 2005, 1, 243.

O'Hagan, S., Dunn, W.B., Brown, M., Knowles, J.D., Kell, D.B. Closed-loop, multiobjective optimization of analytical instrumentation: Gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry of the metabolomes of human serum and of yeast fermentations. Analytical Chemistry 2005, 77, 290.

Kenny, L.C., Dunn, W.B., Ellis, D.I., Myers, J., Baker, P.N., GOPEC Consortium, Kell, D.B. Novel biomarkers for preeclampsia detected using metabolomics and machine learning. Metabolomics 2005, 1, 227.

Kell, D.B., Brown, M., Davey, H.M., Dunn, W.B., Spasic, I., Oliver ,S.G. Metabolic footprinting and systems biology: The medium is the message. Nature Reviews Microbiology 2005, 3, 557.

Dunn, W.B., Ellis, D.I. Metabolomics: Current analytical platforms and methodologies. Trac-Trends in Analytical Chemistry 2005, 24, 285.

Dunn, W.B., Bailey, N.J.C., Johnson, H.E. Measuring the metabolome: current analytical technologies. Analyst 2005, 130, 606.

Brown, M., Dunn, W.B., Ellis, D.I., Goodacre, R., Handl, J., Knowles, J.D., O’Hagan, S., Spasic, I., Kell, D.B. A metabolome pipeline: from concept to data to knowledge. Metabolomics 2005, 1, 39.

Dunn, W.B., Overy, S., Quick, W.P. Evaluation of automated electrospray-TOF mass spectrometry for metabolic fingerprinting of the plant metabolome. Metabolomics 2005, 1, 137.

Goodacre, R., Vaidyanathan, S., Dunn, W.B., Harrigan, G.G., Kell, D.B. Metabolomics by numbers: acquiring and understanding global metabolite data. Trends in Biotechnology 2004, 22, 245.