The BOSS research group at the NWU has been involved in the development of a metabolomics approach for the analysis of biotransformation biomarkers. In this approach, targeted analysis of specific biomarkers for biotransformation is used to determine whether abnormalities in these metabolic pathways occur, what the magnitude of these abnormalities are, whether this is associated with an increased risk to develop a certain disease (e.g. cancer), and if treatment in the specific case is viable.  In collaboration with our colleagues from the molecular biology lab, we also investigate these abnormalities on a molecular level, by identifying any genetic modifications that may be causing these changes. The instrumentation which is used includes gas chromatography, high resolution liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, triple quadrupole mass spectrometry and UV detection. Method developing and targeted analysis of individual biomarkers research is done on the golden standard high resolution chromatography separation on an Agilent 1290 liquid chromatograph and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) analysis on an Agilent 6460 Jet Stream tandem mass spectrometer.