In lipidomics, the process of shotgun lipidomics (named by analogy with shotgun sequencing) uses analytical chemistry to investigate the biological function, significance, and sequelae of alterations in lipids and protein constituents mediating lipid metabolism, trafficking, or biological function in cells.
[1] [2] Lipidomics has been greatly facilitated by recent advances in, and novel applications of, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS).
Lipidomic studies play an essential role in defining the biochemical mechanisms of lipid-related disease processes through identifying alterations in cellular lipid metabolism, trafficking and homeostasis.
Shotgun lipidomics was developed by Richard W. Gross and Xianlin Han, by employing ESI intrasource separation techniques.
Shotgun lipidomics is fast, highly sensitive, and it can identify hundreds of lipids missed by other methods — all with a much smaller tissue sample so that specific cells or minute biopsy samples can be examined.