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Metabolomics: beyond biomarkers and towards mechanisms

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 17, pages 451–459 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metabolomics, which is the profiling of metabolites in biofluids, cells and tissues, is routinely applied as a tool for biomarker discovery. Owing to innovative developments in informatics and analytical technologies, and the integration of orthogonal biological approaches, it is now possible to expand metabolomic analyses to understand the systems-level effects of metabolites. Moreover, because of the inherent sensitivity of metabolomics, subtle alterations in biological pathways can be detected to provide insight into the mechanisms that underlie various physiological conditions and aberrant processes, including diseases.

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Figure 1: From metabolites to pathways and mechanisms.
Figure 2: Controlling and influencing metabolism: perspectives from metabolomics.
Figure 3: Novel biological insights.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Nadine Levin at UCLA for her comments on the manuscript. Funding for this work was supported by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants R01 GM114368 and PO1 A1043376-02S1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Caroline Johnson is at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, 60 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.,

    Caroline H. Johnson

  2. Julijana Ivanisevic is at the Metabolomics Research Platform, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 19, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.,

    Julijana Ivanisevic

  3. Departments of Chemistry, Gary Siuzdak is at the Scripps Center for Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry, Molecular and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.,

    Gary Siuzdak

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Johnson, C., Ivanisevic, J. & Siuzdak, G. Metabolomics: beyond biomarkers and towards mechanisms. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 17, 451–459 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm.2016.25

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