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Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 5, 763–769 (1 September 2004) | doi:10.1038/nrm1451

Metabolite profiling: from diagnostics to systems biology

Alisdair R. Fernie , Richard N. Trethewey , Arno J. Krotzky & Lothar Willmitzer

The concept of metabolite profiling has been around for several decades, but only recent technical innovations have allowed metabolite profiling to be carried out on a large scale — with respect to both the number of metabolites measured and the number of experiments carried out. As a result, the power of metabolite profiling as a technology platform for diagnostics, and the research areas of gene-function analysis and systems biology, is now beginning to be fully realized.