Metabolomikk

Metabolomik, often called metabolomics in English, is the study of chemical processes involving metabolites, the small molecule products of cellular metabolism. It aims to comprehensively profile metabolites present in a biological system to gain insight into phenotype, physiology, and disease.

Metabolomics employs untargeted and targeted strategies. Untargeted approaches survey as many metabolites as possible to generate a global snapshot, while targeted methods quantify a predefined set of metabolites. Analyses typically rely on mass spectrometry coupled with chromatography (LC-MS, GC-MS) or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) for detection and quantification.

A typical workflow includes experimental design with proper controls, sample collection and preparation, data acquisition, preprocessing (peak detection, alignment, normalization), metabolite identification, and statistical and pathway analyses. Data interpretation often integrates biochemical pathways and network analyses.

Common applications include biomarker discovery for disease, pharmacometabolomics to study drug effects, nutrition research, toxicology, and environmental or plant and microbial metabolomics. Metabolomic data are frequently integrated with genomics and proteomics to understand metabolism in systems biology.

Challenges include accurate metabolite identification, coverage bias toward certain chemical classes, standardization and reproducibility across instruments and labs, and the need for robust data processing pipelines. Data sharing and standard formats, such as those promoted by the Metabolomics Standards Initiative, improve comparability.

Resources include public databases (HMDB, METLIN, KEGG) and repositories (MetaboLights, Metabolomics Workbench). Software tools such as XCMS, MZmine, and MetaboAnalyst assist data processing, visualization, and interpretation.