Bo Burla
Senior Research Scientist
Email: bo.burla@nus.edu.sg

What are your present research interests?

My main interest is in improving analytical and data quality, as well as in developing data processing workflows for mass spectrometry-based small molecule assays, with a focus on lipidomics. In addition, I am interested in sphingolipids in the context of platelets and sphingolipidoses, particularly Fabry disease.

Do you have a distinctive viewpoint to your research?

I believe that more emphasis on data quality and reproducibility of metabolomics and lipidomics analyses is necessary to allow accurate mechanistic insights into metabolism and discover robust markers for health and disease. Furthermore, I support open code and open data practices to enable others to verify, learn from, enhance, and reuse published analyses.

What do you see as your future research directions?

I am working on developing new QA/QC and data automation workflows to enable high-throughput and high-coverage analyses of studies with thousands or even tens of thousands of samples. On the side, I am also exploring how lipidomics and metabolomics analyses can be used in rare disease screening and management.

Does your laboratory have a particularly strong research expertise?

We focus on developing and applying mass spectrometry-based assays for small molecules, particularly lipids and polar metabolites, in both basic and clinical research. To support these efforts, we develop novel data processing workflows and software.

Recent Publications

1. Burla B, Oh J, Nowak A, Piraud N, Meyer E, Mei D, Bendt AK, Studt J, Frey BM, Torta F, Wenk MR, Krayenbuehl, PA (2024). Plasma and platelet lipidome changes in Fabry disease. Clinica Chimica Acta, 562, 119833.
2. Torta F, Hoffmann N, Burla B, Alecu I, Arita M, Bamba T, Bennett SAL, Bertrand‑Michel J., Brügger B, Cala MP, Camacho‑Muñoz D, Checa A, Chen M, Chocholoušková M, Cinel M, Chu‑Van E, Colsch B, Coman C, Connell L, …, & Wenk MR (2024). Concordant inter‑laboratory derived concentrations of ceramides. Nature Communications, 15 (1), 8562.
3. Tan SH, Koh HWL, Chua JY, Burla B, Ong CC, Teo LSL, Yang X, Benke PI, Choi H, Torta F, Richards AM, Wenk MR, Chan YM (2022). Variability of the plasma lipidome and subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 42(1):100-112
4. Triebl A, Burla B, Selvalatchmanan J, Oh J, Tan SH, Chan MY, Mellet NA, Meikle PJ, Torta F, Wenk MR (2020). Shared reference materials harmonize lipidomics across MS-based detection platforms and laboratories. Journal of Lipid Research 61:105-115
5. Burla B, Arita M, Arita M, Bendt AK, Cazenave-Gassiot A, Dennis EA, Ekroos K, Han X, Ikeda K, Liebisch G, Lin MK, Loh TP, Meikle PJ, Orešič M, Quehenberger O, Shevchenko A, Torta F, Wakelam MJO, Wheelock CE, Wenk MR (2018). MS-based lipidomics of human blood plasma: a community-initiated position paper to develop accepted guidelines. Journal of Lipid Research 59(10):2001-2017