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Nature 455, 698 (2 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/455698a; Published online 1 October 2008

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Metabolomics: Dark matter

"There are a lot of small molecules that we do not even know about yet," says Arthur Castle, programme director for the Roadmap Metabolomics Technology development programme at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Metabolomics has a good handle on analysing human primary metabolites, but when it comes to lipids, secondary metabolites, xenobiotics and the products of gut microflora, we are just scratching the surface, says Castle.