Metabolomics

Metabolomics is the study of the metabolic profile of a given cell, tissue, fluid, organ or organism at a given point in time. The metabolome represents the end products of gene expression. While mRNA gene expression data and proteomic analyses hint at what might be happening in a cell, metabolites and their relative accumulation can indicate what is happening that cell.

Key technologies

• Mass spectrometry particularly gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC MS), and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC MS). In addition, direct-infusion mass spectrometry is becoming increasingly popular, especially for high-resolution techniques such as Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron-resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS).

• High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Compared to GC, HPLC has inherently lower chromatographic resolution, but it does have the advantage that a much wider range of analytes can potentially be measured (whereas GC is limited to analysis of metabolites that are either volatile or can be made volatile by chemical derivatization).

• Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry. NMR has a number of benefits as a metabolomics technique. There is no need for derivatization nor separation of the analytes, and the sample can thus be recovered for further analyses. All kinds of small molecule metabolite can be measured simultaneously - NMR is close to being a universal detector. However, it also possesses one major disadvantage, which is that it is relatively insensitive compared to mass spectrometry-based techniques.

See also: proteomics, glycomics