Technology improvements in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry have enhanced the detection and identification of metabolites and lipids from complex biological samples.  As metabolomics and lipidomics measurements become increasingly valued, there is a growing need to automate sample preparation workflows. 

Specifically, Agilent automation offers intuitive workflows that provide high data reproducibility and increased throughput while reducing hands-on time.  Here, we describe key learnings revealed during the automation of several workflows that extract metabolites and/or lipids from plasma and mammalian cell samples.