In scientific research, metabolomics is the study of all the chemical process involving metabolites in a biological system whether it is a single cell, a tissue, an organ or an organism. Each specific cellular process leaves a unique chemical print which is a metabolite. The analysis of the metabolites in a cell gives a snapshot of its physiological state, and thus provides a better understanding of cellular biology.

Metabolomics is a compulsory study to better understand all the mechanisms involved in a biological system. It has a lot of applications:

In pharmacology, metabolomics is involved in the discovering of new active principles using high throughput screening and in the analysis the effects of a drug on organisms in preclinical and clinical research.

In toxicology, by establishing the metabolic profile of the biological sample (blood or urine for example) to detect any physiological change caused by a toxic compound.

In genomics, metabolomics is a great tool to determine the phenotype caused by a genetic manipulation such as gene deletion or insertion.

Metabolomics is also applied to study organism-environment interactions to assess organism function and health at a molecular level. This kind of study has more and more applications in environmental science.

Metabolomics studies involve several analytical technologies to separate and detect metabolites of which you can find services on Scientist such as gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatographyto separate the components and mass spectrometry or nuclear magnetic resonance to identify and quantify the metabolites.

You will find on Scientist, labs working on metabolomics, in both academic and private sectors.