Figure 1. The micrometabolomics platform workflow is simpler, faster, and takes up less space than traditional metabolite extraction.

Traditional fungal metabolomics workflows (top) require serial inoculation of cultures, collection and homogenization of the sample, extraction of metabolites with solvent, and finally evaporation of that solvent prior to analysis. The microscale workflow (bottom) allows for arrayed inoculation and on-chip metabolite extraction without the need for culture collection and homogenization. Besides the streamlined process, the micrometabolomics platform also uses ∼1000 × less solvent, which cuts down on evaporation time and makes the workflow faster.