Metabolomics

Metabolomics is a revolutionary field of study that interfaces multiple scientific disciplines to focus on the systematic study of small molecules, often referred to as metabolites, within cells, tissues, or whole organisms. Metabolites are the intermediates and end products of various cellular processes, representing the dynamic metabolic profile of a biological system. The comprehensive analysis of these metabolites provides profound insights into the physiological and biochemical processes occurring within living organisms. By employing cutting-edge analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, metabolomics enables the simultaneous identification and quantification of a vast array of metabolites, allowing researchers to gain a holistic understanding of biological systems' functional states and responses to internal and external stimuli.

Metabolomics can be seen as a new experimental approach in the study of biochemistry but has it is technically embedded in analytical chemistry. It is clear that metabolomics, being involved in measuring and interpreting changes in metabolites in biological systems, focuses on the chemical landscape that interrelates gene expression and environmental effects at the chemical level. The current dogma in biochemistry describes the relationship between gene expression, transcription, protein formation and metabolite transformation as driving biological function. Metabolomics studies, however, have made it increasingly clear that biological function in cells, tissues and ultimately whole organisms is manifest from more complex and differentiated interrelationships where function is the product of complex chemical systems routed in continuous feedback and cross talk at all levels. For example, it is now clear that gene expression is exquisitely controlled and responsive to the functioning state of the cell at the metabolic level and that the metabolome itself senses and responds directly to exogenous chemical stimuli. Genes are ‘switched on or off’ by responsive signalling molecules, that include metabolites and proteins. Understanding the complexity of genome expression and the cellular environment has major implications for our knowledge of how diseases develop, how we respond to drugs, how we stay healthy and how we age. It is becoming clear that to understand the cellular system we must combine a detailed structural understanding of its constituent parts with knowledge of how they interact at the molecular level.