Summary
I am a postdoctoral research chemometrician at the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre, a world-class facility for the metabolic phenotyping of human samples. Here, I contribute to quality-control assessment, method development and biomarker discovery and validation in patient- and population-based samples with the overarching aim of discovering robust diagnostic and prognostic markers for disease risk and personalized medicine.
As such, my main research interests include: (1) elucidating the complex relationship between health status, diet, genetics, drugs, microbiome and environment in metabolic phenotyping based analysis of patients and populations (2) development of statistical methods for enhanced information recovery from spectroscopic data.
Research Interests
(1) Elucidating METABOLIC relationships
For example, investigating the microbial influences on metabolism.
Gut microbial metabolite associations
(2) Development of Statistical Methods for Spectroscopic Data Analysis
For example, utilizing the inherent correlations between spectral variables in order to:
- Identify, deconvolve and selectively remove drug metabolite signals from NMR data
- Explore inter- and intra-metabolite connectivities
I-STOCSY
Selected Publications
Sands CJ; Coen M; Ebbels TMD; Holmes E; Lindon JC; Nicholson JK. (2011). Data-Driven Approach for Metabolite Relationship Recovery in Biological 1H NMR Data Sets Using Iterative Statistical Total Correlation Spectroscopy. Analytical Chemistry. 83:2075-2082.
Sands CJ; Coen M; Maher AD; Ebbels TMD; Holmes E; Lindon JC; Nicholson JK. (2009). Statistical Total Correlation Spectroscopy Editing of 1H NMR Spectra of Biofluids: Application to Drug Metabolite Profile Identification and Enhanced Information Recovery. Analytical Chemistry. 81:6458-6466.
Publications
Journals
Alexander J, Powell N, Marchesi J, et al., 2023, Considerations for peripheral blood transport and storage during large-scale multicentre metabolome research, Gut, ISSN:0017-5749, Pages:1-4
Lu H, George J, Eslam M, et al., 2023, Discriminatory changes in circulating metabolites as a predictor of hepatocellular cancer in patients with MAFLD, Liver Cancer, Vol:12, ISSN:2235-1795, Pages:19-31
Gadgil MD, Kanaya AM, Sands C, et al., 2022, Diet Patterns Are Associated with Circulating Metabolites and Lipid Profiles of South Asians in the United States, Journal of Nutrition, Vol:152, ISSN:0022-3166, Pages:2358-2366
Wilshaw J, Boswood A, Chang YM, et al., 2022, Evidence of altered fatty acid metabolism in dogs with naturally occurring valvular heart disease and congestive heart failure, Metabolomics, Vol:18, ISSN:1573-3882
Jones B, Sands C, Alexiadou K, et al., 2022, The metabolomic effects of tripeptide gut hormone infusion compared to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and caloric restriction, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol:107, ISSN:0021-972X, Pages:e767-e782