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Data Model Overview

integMET organizes data into three core entities: Study, Differential Profile (DiffProf), and Metabolite.

Entity Relationships

Entity Relationships

  • One Study contains one or more DiffProfs (biological contrasts)
  • One DiffProf captures a biological event with its metabolite changes
  • One Metabolite can appear across multiple DiffProfs and Studies

Relationships Summary

From To Relationship
Study DiffProf One Study contains one or more DiffProfs
DiffProf Study Each DiffProf belongs to exactly one Study
DiffProf Metabolite One DiffProf contains many Metabolites (with fold-changes)
Metabolite DiffProf One Metabolite can appear in many DiffProfs
Metabolite Study One Metabolite can appear in many Studies

Entity Overview

Study

A Study represents a metabolomics experiment from a public repository such as MetaboLights.

  • Identifier: MetaboLights accession (e.g., MTBLS10)
  • Contains: Title, summary, observations, findings
  • Linked metadata: Disease terms, gene names, species, chemicals

→ Learn more about Study

Differential Profile (DiffProf)

A DiffProf represents a biological contrast or event — a comparison between two sample groups that captures a specific biological phenomenon.

Examples of biological contrasts: - Disease vs. Healthy - Treated vs. Untreated - Regenerating tissue vs. Intact tissue - Stressed vs. Normal

Each DiffProf carries biological meaning: it describes what changed at the metabolite level when a specific condition or treatment was applied.

  • Identifier: Study ID + comparison index (e.g., MTBLS10_0001_00000005)
  • Contains: Two comparison groups, metabolite fold-changes, p-values, direction of change
  • Biological meaning: Each DiffProf represents a distinct biological event with its metabolic signature

→ Learn more about DiffProf

Metabolite

A Metabolite is a small molecule tracked across the database.

  • Identifier: InChIKey (e.g., SNICXCGAKADSCV-UHFFFAOYSA-N)
  • Contains: Chemical identifiers (ChEBI, IUPAC name, synonyms)
  • Tracks: Which Studies and DiffProfs this metabolite appears in

→ Learn more about Metabolite

A typical exploration path:

  1. Start with a Study — browse studies by keyword or condition
  2. View its DiffProfs — see what biological comparisons were made
  3. Examine Metabolites — find which metabolites changed significantly
  4. Trace Metabolite across DiffProfs — discover other conditions where the same metabolite changes