Deep neural networks for classification of LC-MS spectral peaks

ED Kantz, S Tiwari, JD Watrous, S Cheng… - Analytical …, 2019 - ACS Publications
ED Kantz, S Tiwari, JD Watrous, S Cheng, M Jain
Analytical chemistry, 2019ACS Publications
Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolomics has emerged as
a valuable tool for biological discovery, capable of assaying thousands of diverse chemical
entities in a single biospecimen. Processing of nontargeted LC-MS spectral data requires
identification and isolation of true spectral features from the random, false noise peaks that
comprise a significant portion of total signals, using inexact peak selection algorithms and
time-consuming visual inspection of data. To increase the fidelity and speed of data …
Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolomics has emerged as a valuable tool for biological discovery, capable of assaying thousands of diverse chemical entities in a single biospecimen. Processing of nontargeted LC-MS spectral data requires identification and isolation of true spectral features from the random, false noise peaks that comprise a significant portion of total signals, using inexact peak selection algorithms and time-consuming visual inspection of data. To increase the fidelity and speed of data processing, herein we establish, optimize, and evaluate a machine learning pipeline employing deep neural networks as well as a simpler multiple logistic regression model for classification of spectral features from nontargeted LC-MS metabolomics data. Machine learning-based approaches were found to remove up to 90% of false peaks from complex nontargeted LC-MS data sets without reducing true positive signals and exhibit excellent reproducibility across multiple data sets. Application of machine learning for nontargeted LC-MS-based peak selection provides for robust and scalable peak classification and data filtering, enabling handling and processing of large scale, complex metabolomics data sets.
ACS Publications