This project is a substudy connected to the Equine Gastropermeability Study conducted by Katie Norris.

Researcher: Amy Kraus

Metabolomics is a relatively new field and is defined as the scientific study of the byproducts that chemical processes leave behind. Amy is working with Penn State's Metabolomics Core Facility to analyze urine and plasma samples through GC-MS and LC-MS instruments. These samples were taken from horses that were feed two different diets: a "healthy" forage diet and a "challenge" concentrate diet. Amy will be looking to find differences between the Metabolomic profiles of horses fed the challenge and healthy diets. Considering that laminitis and diabetes are often liked to horses eating too much grain, she expects to see differences in the metabolome that indicate perturbations to the biological systems that can cause metabolic diseases.