Book excerpt: This volume in the well-established Methods in Enzymology series features methods for the study of lipids using mass spectrometry techniques. Articles in this volume cover topics such as Qualitative Analysis and Quantitative Assessment of Changes in Neutral Glycerol Lipid Molecular Species within Cells; Glycerophospholipid identification and quantitation by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry; Detection and Quantitation of Eicosanoids via High Performance Liquid Chromatography/Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry; Structure-specific, quantitative methods for "lipidomic" analysis of sphingolipids by tandem mass spectrometry; Analysis of Ubiquinones, Dolichols and Dolichol Diphosphate-Oligosaccharides by Liquid Chromatography Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry; Extraction and Analysis of Sterols in Biological Matrices by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry; The Lipid Maps Initiative in Lipidomics; Basic analytical systems for lipidomics by mass spectrometry in Japan; The European Lipidomics Initiative Enabling technologies; Lipidomic analysis of Signaling Pathways; Bioinformatics for Lipidomics; Mediator Lipidomics: Search Algorithms for Eicosanoids, Resolvins and Protectins; A guide to biochemical systems modeling of sphingolipids for the biochemist; and Quantitation and Standardization of Lipid Internal Standards for Mass Spectroscopy.